


Scars like Constellations

by Interverse



Series: Interversal [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Depression, I hope, I swear, M/M, Physical Abuse, Red's a sad sad boi, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn, Still an active story, Suicidal Thoughts, Verbal Abuse, Way too Much Random Bullshit, Way too many AUs, Way too many headcanons, i just have like a million other little things to cross off my list before i dive back in
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-09-29 04:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 53,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17196635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Interverse/pseuds/Interverse
Summary: Blue's always liked puzzles, so perhaps it's not as surprising as some might initially think that he would be intrigued by hisverypuzzling counterpart from Underfell.Red dislikes the attention very much. At first.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to this shitshow! Thanks for stopping by.
> 
> Just be warned that I'm the biggest slut for AU interaction ever, so I'll mention and write for a disgustingly large amount of them pretty casually.
> 
> Some other ships will also be sprinkled about in the background, namely Drink at the moment.

Mondays. It’s the general consensus of the Underground that they’re a harbinger of little else than agony, and this philosophy apparently extends beyond the monsters’ home. Blue’s brother had always been one of the most dedicated believers of this, hence why the Sans disliked them as well. As a Papyrus within a Swap universe, Stretch was an immeasurably large pain to try and drag out of bed.

 

“Am I not using the right name or something? Papyrus? Papy? Stretch? Do I need a password?” Blue had been rambling on for near ten minutes like this, poking and prodding his brother in a desperate attempt to get a reaction.

 

He took a breath and stepped back for a minute, thinking, and then dreading what he quickly concluded he had to do. He posed dramatically, then opened his mouth and said in his most douchey voice, “ _420 blaze it_!”

 

Stretch immediately burst into laughter, nearly throwing his blanket off in the process. Blue groaned. “Barely worth it. Come on.”

 

“Bro, that’s not fair!” Stretch whined, but still complied when Blue gripped him by the humerus and pulled him to the edge of the bed.

 

“It’s not fair that now I have ten less minutes of my life to enjoy,” Blue retorted. “If I leave you in here to change, you promise you’ll come downstairs?” Of course the extent of Stretch’s ‘changing’ would only be to put back on the same pair of cargo shorts he had been wearing for a week and stuffing his feet into his laceless high tops, but it still felt invasive to stay in the room for the process.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Stretch sighed, although his claim wasn’t all that convincing considering it was paired with him rolling over.

 

Blue rolled his eyes and left the room, closing the door behind him. Either Stretch took a very long time with his minimal amount of changing, or he did something else along the way, because Blue was only left with the task of setting a couple of spoons on the table by the time he trudged down the stairs. “Finally. Breakfast is ready, as you should be able to see. Let me know if you can’t, because that would be a problem.”

 

Stretch slouched over to the point of it looking like it hurt his spine, and cupped his face with his hands, allowing his mouth to hang open. “Bro… I… I can’t see it… guess I can’t to go work, damn.”

 

Blue snorted and shook his head, though he was smiling. “Nice try, but your bad habits need to be funded somehow.”

 

Stretch fell into one of the chairs at their table and placed a hand over his sternum, feigning hurt. “Ouch. That was brutal, bro.”

 

Blue chuckled and kissed his brother affectionately on top of the skull, and was rewarded with a smile - a genuine one, for once - and the sight of the other monster picking up his spoon and beginning to shovel the oatmeal Blue had made into his mouth. As predicted, it didn’t even take five seconds before he reached for the bottle of honey Blue had begrudgingly placed on the table and dumped an ungodly portion of it into his bowl. Blue sat down, and upon nudging a dish of berries towards his brother, Stretch ungracefully grabbed a handful of them and threw them into his food. Knowing he had tried his best, Blue relented in his efforts to provide proficient nutrition to his brother and did so for himself instead.

 

Once they were done and the dishes had been washed - with no help from Stretch as expected - Blue started on his next task, getting them out the door. He managed to succeed after packing a bag for each of them and prying his brother off of the couch, stepping away from their house with a sigh.

 

“Do you think I can get to my post without moving?” Stretch pondered.

 

“Nope,” Blue replied, “Not unless you want to drain your magic reserves for the day and teleport, which I certainly don’t recommend. Looks like you’ll have to walk with me.”

 

For most of his life, Blue had been jealous of his brother’s teleporting ability, but he had gotten over it. Its only real use was to yank you out of a situation in an emergency or impress people for a grand total of about five seconds before sending you straight into a nap. What a way to derail your day. Teleportation is not an ability able to be learned, or gained, either. A Soul has to manifest with it, which only happens once in each universe, to either the Sans or Swap Papyrus that resides within it. It's apparently a predetermined abnormality due to the unique nature of their birth, being the only monsters to have been born with one parent, as a result of an experiment rather than traditional reproduction. But alas, Stretch of course did not listen to Blue's recommendation in the slightest, putting quite a bit of effort into walking as slow as he could.

 

“Come on Papy, at least take bigger steps. You have plenty of leg to work with,” Blue sighed.

 

Stretch rolled his eyes, but trotted up so that they were walking side by side with a huff. “What’s for lunch?”

 

Typical. “I don’t know why you need to know, considering you just ate ten minutes ago, but I packed you soup and a sandwich. If you’d rather have Muffet’s, at least give the food to someone else or something. I wouldn’t want to see it go to waste.”

 

“I’ll have both.”

 

Very typical. Blue honestly wished his brother’s station was the first one they came across, just to make sure he didn’t wander off and skip out on work, but he would only earn himself some unfashionable lateness if he chose to walk the extra distance to his brother’s post. He turned to face him with a breath once they had reached his. “Alright Papy, you sure you’re going to be alright?”

 

Stretch chuckled and gave Blue a pat atop the head. “Yep. I’m the older one, you know. I can sit my ass in an uncomfortable chair for a day just fine.”

 

Blue swatted the hand away, making a face. “I don’t think age matters as much as what you’ve done with the years. And I, for one, have used them all to take care of you while you sleep your days away.”

 

Stretch gasped. “Nonsense. You’d be lost without me.”

 

Blue’s gaze softened. “I’d certainly be a lot lonelier.” He pulled his brother into a hug, nuzzling into his sternum. “I love you, Papyrus.”

 

Stretch gently pressed his teeth to the top of Blue’s skull, returning the embrace. “I love ya too, bro. In fact, I’ll try my best to only sleep for half of my shift.”

 

Blue breathed out in amusement, gently stepping back from his brother’s arms and then placing his hand at his forehead in a salute. “Off you go, then.”

 

Stretch returned the gesture, temporarily fixing his awful posture in the process. “Off I go. See you later, Sans.”

 

“See you later,” Blue confirmed. “Oh-! And don’t forget that Dream and Ink are having dinner with us tonight!”

 

Stretch didn’t turn around, but he raised his hand in acknowledgement before he disappeared down the path to his station. They’d known the two multiversal skeletons for most of their lives. Dream and Ink had visited Underswap when Blue was little more than a babybones, which birthed his nickname for the other universes to know him as. Luckily, his favorite color hadn’t changed. Blue was still baffled as to why his brother had chosen ‘Stretch’. It was apparently a meme at the time, which was perfect according to his Papyrus, but coincidentally it was also a fun reference to his height ever since he had gained it.

 

Blue sat down at his station and dug a pen out of his bag, setting to work with the paperwork that had piled up over the weekend. Being a sentry was repetitive, but it paid the bills and was better than cramming himself into the ferry every morning to go and wallow at some desk in the Capital. The workload rarely consisted of more than the paperwork like the pile he was currently chipping away at, patrols, and giving directions to anyone who happened to be wandering the woods. He amused himself at times with little puzzles he had built around the forest, too. He’d always liked the idea of obstacle courses when he was young, so he had come to build a few of his own, and nobody had complained, so they remained. He chuckled to himself at the memory of a few kids excitedly proposing that they could be used to capture a human.

 

They weren’t exactly capable of trapping anyone in, and anyway, despite his optimism, Blue had to be honest with himself. The last human that had fallen was gone decades before he even existed, and a gap nowhere near this long between strange guests to the Underground had ever been suffered before, so logic would dictate that something had happened to prevent any others from falling. Most if not all of the universes seemed to be trapped in this stage, with only one more Soul required to break the barrier, but Blue didn’t spend too much time worrying about it. If he suddenly had access to the surface? Great. If he didn’t? That was okay. He’d done alright so far.

 

The sun was at that perfect angle to reflect off of the snow and directly into his eyes by the time he had finished with the paperwork, so he was happy to hop up and start on his patrols to escape the light after he tucked everything away. It went as it usually did, just like his lunch and the few people he ended up directing afterwards. Another patrol, and he was dashing off towards the Ruins to find his brother. Once he did, he held up a gloved hand to the other skeleton, offering a smile. “See? You’ve defeated another Monday. I knew you could do it.”

 

Stretch chuckled, grunting as he rose from his seat and gently placed his palm against Blue’s in the lamest high five he’d ever experienced. He took it in stride, grabbing his brother’s hand and dragging him in the direction of their house. “You’re helping me make dinner this time, whether you like it or not.”

 

Stretch softly grumbled his protests, but he did end up participating anyway, even if Blue probably could have done everything more efficiently with him out of the way. It was still a good way to spend time with each other.

 

“Why do we need to set the table if they’re not even here yet?” Stretch sighed as he dug a few plates out of the cupboards.

 

“Because it would be distracting to do it while they’re watching, don’t you think?” Blue responded. “It’s not like we’re going to dish the food out already or anything.”

 

“Who knows, maybe they’d find it entertaining,” Stretch snorted.

 

Blue doubted that they would, but he was sure they wouldn’t mind. That didn’t stop him, though. Once done with that, he dashed up the stairs and took what he was sure was a worryingly fast shower, threw some nicer clothes on, tied his bandana back around his neck, and then rejoined his brother in the main part of the house. His haste didn’t end up being required, because he sat on the couch tapping at his phone for another ten minutes before he heard a knock at the door.

 

Upon opening the door, Ink leapt inside and wrapped him up in a hug, rocking him back and forth a few times before breaking loose and kissing him firmly on each cheek. Blue giggled, squirming at the ticklish touches, then gasped when he saw Dream. They unfortunately didn’t get to see the two very often, considering how busy they always are, so from their last visit, Dream’s appearance was quite different.

 

The skeleton chuckled lightly at the attention, placing a hand over his abdomen, which was swollen with magic beneath his clothes. “Four months.”

 

When the news came about that Dream and Ink were having a kid, it had practically been a frenzy among the universes they were closest with, because it absolutely blindsided everyone. Sure, the two were married and had been for quite some time, but Ink had the small problem of lacking a Soul, which is very much required for reproduction. They’d always declined to explain how they’d managed anyway, but Blue didn’t press it. It was a personal subject, and he was more than happy to respect their wishes of privacy.

 

Ink bounded back to his husband, planted a kiss on his cheekbone, then pressed a palm against Dream’s conjured stomach with a gentleness unusual for the excitable skeleton. “Yep! Only a few weeks to go before he’ll stop looking like a balloon.”

 

Dream shot him a look, and Ink’s asymmetrical eyelights flashed with the realization that what he’d said could have been taken as insulting. “Er, not that I don’t like it. You’re still perfect.”

 

Dream smiled, then drew a breath before speaking. “Yes, though I can’t say I’m not looking forward to it. I’d like to wear my clothes again, and be able to… you know, exist normally.” He smiled, looking down at his bulging midsection. “Plus, we’ll finally have a babybones.”

 

“That you will,” Stretch chuckled, standing from the couch and giving them a little wave. Ink waved back, stepping from Dream’s side and moving further into the house. Blue extended a hand to Dream, and though he took it willingly, he still insisted that he didn’t need help. Blue dismissed the claims, and led him to a seat at the couch, which he sunk into with a grateful sigh.

 

“Are you two hungry yet?” Blue asked as he sat as well. “We can wait if you’re not. The food won’t get cold.”

 

Ink opened his mouth to reply, but Dream beat him to it. “YES.” Everyone blinked at him, and he coughed. “Um, yes. We’re hungry now. At least, ah, I am.” He smiled sheepishly, a bit of golden magic warming his cheekbones and nasal ridge.

 

Blue nodded, then glanced at his brother. “Would you go get things ready, Papy?”

 

Stretch huffed, but made his way into the kitchen. Blue’s eyelights slowly drifted towards Dream, and he jumped a bit when he was caught staring. “Would you like to feel?”

 

He nodded shyly, and allowed Dream to grip one of his hands with both of his and guide it towards his abdomen. Blue let out a breath when his palm was pressed flat against the warm surface of Dream’s stomach through the thin fabric of the tunic he was wearing. The magic felt a lot different than normal ectoflesh, seeming to flutter with energy as if it was teeming with excitement beneath his fingertips. Blue sucked in a breath that sounded more like a squeak when he felt a small tap against his palm.

 

Dream giggled in response to his reaction, releasing his hand. “Ink used to freak out every single time they moved in there.”

 

“Well yeah,” Ink defended, “It’s like you have a wriggling alien parasite. Gross.”

 

After another look that Blue was sure Ink was used to by now, the multicolored skeleton chuckled apologetically. “But I mean, not really. You know, the beautiful cycle of life and all that.”

 

Dream sighed, but there was affection reflected in his eyelights. “Do you think you ever want kids, Blue?”

 

Blue was surprised by the question, so it took him longer than he would have liked to respond. “I… don’t know, actually. Maybe someday, if I found the right person, but I don’t have an overwhelming desire to. I guess I just have to see where life takes me.” He was certainly in no position to be a parent at the moment, still quite young and more single than the queen.

 

“You will,” Dream said warmly. “You’re a wonderful person, so you’re bound to attract someone you connect with any day now.”

 

Blue blushed a bit, smiling. “You really think so?” He honestly felt that he was too busy to go and actively seek a relationship, and he wasn’t interested in anyone he already knew. He could always just use one of those dating apps everyone seemed so fond of to meet a few people, but that felt forced to him. He wanted to find someone naturally.

 

Dream nodded just as Stretch poked his head out of the kitchen. “Aight, the face stuffing station has been prepared,” he announced.

 

While Ink burst into hysterical laughter at the phrasing, Blue stood and helped Dream up afterwards. “Great.”

 

They all sat and dished out the food, and Blue was about to start more conversation, but he was stopped by his own shock when Dream dumped nearly half a bag of parmesan onto his casserole as if it was the most normal action you could take. He noticed the looks, then flushed gold and hastily put the cheese back. “Er… I-I’m sorry, I suppose-”

 

“No, it’s fine,” Blue said, laughter in his voice. “You can have whatever you like. The pregnant one comes first.”

 

“Oh, thank you,” Dream sighed, relieved.

 

Blue tried not to look at him directly as he proceeded to take a gargantuan bite of the food while he thought of a topic. “So, have you thought about names yet?”

 

“Of course!” Ink chirped around his mouthful of food, which normally would have gotten him scolded for the bad manners by his husband, but Dream was too occupied with inhaling his own meal. “We’ve narrowed our list down to five names, because we’ve decided we wanted a unisex one, right?”

 

Dream mumbled some sort of garbled confirmation with his mouth full, earning an eye roll from Ink. “We thought that Rem was cute, but we also like Canvas, Wish, Veil, and Palette.”

 

Blue tilted his head thoughtfully, swallowing his mouthful of food and waiting until it had absorbed fully into the magic of his throat before speaking. “I like Palette.”

 

Stretch nodded in agreement, and Ink lit up, managing to finish chewing before he spoke. “Really? That’s what we were leaning towards too.”

 

“Yeah, it just… feels right, I suppose,” Dream said, then eyed his empty plate. “Um… is there… seconds..?”

 

“Of course,” Blue chuckled, giving the other skeleton more food and watching for a moment as he once again attacked it. “It is good?” he asked, addressing everyone at the table.

 

“It always is, bro,” Stretch confirmed, while Ink just nodded.

 

Dream’s eyelights flashed when he noticed the garlic bread sitting in the middle of the table, and he excitedly darted a hand out to grab a piece, but stopped at the last moment, and turned to Blue instead. “Do you have… hotdog buns..?”

 

Blue raised a browbone. “Uh, yeah. Why?”

 

Dream flicked his eyelights around the room. “I… I have no idea. They just sound really good???”

 

Blue laughed breathily, standing and walking over to the pantry. “You got it, boss.”

 

“And butter?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“And pickles??”

 

Blue really stopped to think at that one. “Er, yeah, okay. Do you want me to dice them or something?”

 

“No, just whole, please,” Dream said. “And thank you,” he added.

 

Once Dream had set to work making his pickle and butter and casserole sandwich, he spoke. “So, I hear that your queen’s having a multiversal meeting later this week?”

 

Stretch just grunted, but Blue cocked his head. “She is? Do you know what it’s about?” The rulers of the different universes only met formally if it was to discuss something important. Why hadn’t he heard about it yet?

 

Dream squinted. “I think it was something to do with Underfell, and the policies you should have to ensure your universe’s residents are safe if they decide to travel to the other, and vice versa?” He shrugged, and took a painfully large bite of his creation, then looked down, furrowing his browbones as he realized all of his casserole had been mixed in with his other chosen ingredients. “Uh… thirds..?”

 

Blue smiled. “Obviously.”


	2. Chapter 2

Sans woke to silence, and he was conflicted as to how he should feel about this. On one hand, he was spared the fate of being violently wrenched from his sleep at the loud knocking of his brother, but on the other, he was now left alone in the dark with his thoughts.

 

There was no way in hell he was going to bother to roll over to look at his bedside clock, old and cracked, so he instead fumbled around for his phone, swearing under his breath until he found it and brought it level with his face. Upon flicking it on, he was convinced the piercing light it thrust into his eyesockets would leave him blind. “Fuck!” he yelped, slamming the screen of the device down against the bed, but cut the exclamation off halfway through and bit his tongue.

 

He didn’t hear anything, so he sighed in relief, a bit of tension fading from his joints. His brother didn’t sleep for very long each night, but he was an endeavor to wake in the short span of time that he did. Sans clumsily lifted his phone again and turned the brightness down, squinting with all of his might and looking at the screen as little as possible. Once he was able to look at the device without inflicting unnecessary pain, he was able to see that it was just after five in the morning.

 

He groaned to himself, tossing his phone aside and gathering fistfuls of blanket in an attempt to calm himself. Papyrus would wake him at six, so even though fatigue was already starting to tug at his sockets again, allowing himself to slip back into sleep would only hurt him in the long run. So, swallowing a whimper, Sans forced himself into a sitting position, letting out a shaky breath once he had managed and starting in the process of attempting to pop between every single vertebra in his spine. He couldn’t get a few, so he left it be with a defeated sigh and rubbed at his eyes.

 

He didn’t want to leave his room, because it would avoid any questions from his brother, so what were his options? He had to to something in order to keep himself awake. His barely functioning laptop was dead, the charger was downstairs, and he was too paranoid to fetch it, so that was out. He could mess around on his phone, sure, but it loaded everything slower than he was in the mornings. It was too dark to read, and lights might disturb his brother. There was also that wonderfully depressing option of giving himself a hand, but that would require far more effort than Sans was willing to put into anything right then.

 

Sans shivered a bit, running a hand over his arm, then winced when one of his claws caught on the ridge of a scar. His body was littered with them. Arms, femurs, ribcage, pelvis, and even his spine in a few places. Some were from others, but most of them were of his own doing. He fought back the burning of tears that started to surface at the back of his sockets, wondering if that was the best activity he had the option of.

 

It was tempting, it really was. Sure, it always made the tears fall, no matter how hard he tried to stop them, but they didn’t feel as empty as they normally did. Unfortunately, a hot drop of liquid escaped one of his sockets before he could scramble to reach for one of the blades he had hidden around the room, and he decided it wouldn’t be worth it, hanging his head with a pathetic little whine at the back of his throat.

 

He hated that noise. It betrayed how fucking weak and fragile he was, broadcasted to anyone who might hear it that he was just as worthless as he appeared. He hated that, and he hated why he hated it. He hated the way that he knew his brother would come pounding on his door, the sound infiltrating his skull and pulling an involuntary wince from him. He hated what awaited him outside his wreck of a room, and he hated that as well. He hated the bed he fell back into every night, hated the ratty blankets that adorned it and the way they were forced to mop up so many of his tears. He hated those, too.

 

It turns out that Sans didn’t need to do anything, because his pessimism was plenty to entertain him up until his brother was yelling at him to get up with the usual frantic burst of knocking. His voice was a croak when he responded, and the cough that came after the words didn’t help his image much either. He shakily clambered from his bed, took a series of steps quite similar to rhythmic tripping all the way over to the lightswitch, shoved his body into his clothes, then opened his door and stepped out of his room with a breath.

 

Papyrus raised a browbone, crossing his arms. “That was unusually fast. Why can’t you take that long every morning?”

 

Sans tried his best to direct his gaze somewhere inconspicuous, clasping his hands together. “I, uh… I dunno, Boss…”

 

Papyrus snorted, then was at the bottom of the stairs in a span of time far too short to deduce that he had been walking at a speed anywhere near normal. “You’re cleaning the kitchen today, Sans. And don’t get in my way while I make your ungrateful ass breakfast.”

 

Sans swallowed the lump in his throat. “You got it.”

 

Sans had always found cleaning to be just about as much  fun as fisting himself in the eyesocket, but it was better than whatever punishment he would have received if he refused to do it. As his brother seemed so fond of telling him, he had a lot to lose. His meals, his bed, the functionality of his limbs, his life… Sans could honestly do without that last one. Life wasn’t really something he enjoyed having.

 

Once he was done, he sat down to cram the food his brother had set out for him after Papyrus had already finished, and he was grateful for the solitude. He would have preferred to eat standing up, but he would be slapped upside the head for manners, so he stayed firmly glued to the chair until he had cleaned his plate, though he hadn’t really enjoyed the food. It’s not as if it was bad - Papyrus had grown into quite the passable chef - but he never felt like eating in the mornings in the first place. To his brother, this was nothing short of unacceptable. He couldn’t go to work even weaker than he already was.

 

Sans washed his dishes, and managed to have a few minutes of peace before his brother was flinging open their front door and barking out the same orders he did every morning before dashing off to wherever his position as Captain was taking him today. Sans sighed, sinking further into the couch cushions, actually able to relax for the first time since exiting his room. The serenity didn’t last long, for he had to step into the cold of Snowdin just a few minutes later. Hell, he would love nothing more than to simply not go to work, but that wouldn’t go well for him. His brother was his boss, so he wouldn’t be fired, or even have his pay docked - considering Papyrus took most of it for himself anyway - but he would suffer nonetheless.

 

It would be easy to lie about it, sure, but the other sentries jizzed their pants at the thought of ratting him out and getting him in trouble, seeing as they would certainly be killed very slowly and painfully if they actually hurt him. And so, Sans found himself sat at his station yet again, shifting uncomfortably and trying not to lose his mind. He didn’t do very well, so he begrudgingly glanced at the pile of papers waiting for him. It was Monday? Honestly, Sans felt as if every one of his days was a Monday.

 

Sans had perfected his technique over the years, able to balance his slacking off with his mediocre working just right so that the last ten minutes of his shift was hell as he scrambled to get everything done. He always stalked his phone to make sure he left his station exactly when his shift ended, and today was no different. He hopped up from his chair, then flipped his post off with both hands before he fled back to his house.

 

Once he was there, he wasted no time in plugging his computer in and making sure to slouch over as much as possible. His brother’s shift was longer than his as the Captain of the Royal fucking Guard, so there were a few magical hours after work when Sans was alone and without responsibilities. While he was forced to clean one room every morning and evening, his brother did realize that not giving Sans any free time wouldn’t be a good idea. He would only fuck everything else up even worse, otherwise.

 

Unfortunately, this stretch of time passed far too quickly, and his brother was stepping inside of their house before addressing him. “Did you work your entire shift, Sans?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Great. Get to work on my bathroom, and I’ll call you down when dinner’s ready.”

 

Sans slid off of the couch, hitting the floor hard with his shoulder and then staggering to his feet afterwards, but was stopped at the bottom of the stairs when Papyrus spoke again. “And if I find anything damaged or out of place, I’ll make you pay double for it with two broken wrists.”

 

Sans knew that Papyrus wouldn’t break his wrists on purpose, for that would render him even more useless than he actually was, but he didn’t doubt he wouldn’t like what would happen in place of the unlikely claim. “Y-You got it, Boss…”

 

Bathrooms - or the toilets, at least - were a relic left in the Underground from before the monsters had converted to an entirely magic efficient system, but few people bothered to get them removed. The room was already spotless, but Sans knew that if he didn’t wipe absolutely everything down a second time over, his determined failure and resulting punishment would be imminent.

 

He finished - or at least hoped he did, according to his brother’s standards - a few minutes before he was called down, and upon entering the kitchen, found that a plate of lasagna had been made for him, which was something Papyrus made often. Sans tried not to stub his toes like he usually did as he sat, allowing himself a small glance at Papyrus when he sat as well. While his brother didn’t give two shits about all the other meals, the two of them eating dinner at the table together was strictly enforced, and Sans had a love-hate relationship with the forced closeness. His brother was less likely to get mad over a meal, so it was the best opportunity to interact with him he had.

 

Sans waited, as Papyrus had always made him, then pounced on his food as soon as he was given permission to. The room was filled with only the scraping of forks against plates for a while, which was equally calming and awkward, until Papyrus broke the silence. “We’re taking a trip this weekend, Sans.”

 

Sans halted in his mission to shovel another bite of food into his mouth in his confusion. “Like a vacation or something?” They were rare in his universe, because it was risky to leave your home unguarded for long periods of time. Usually only the wealthy monsters had the luxury of them, and they should honestly be included in that group given his brother's status, but Papyrus was much too in love with dumping most of their budget into upgraded security around the Underground. Not to benefit people so much as ensure he had the best control over them he could.

 

Papyrus snorted loudly. “No, you idiot. You need to come with me, Asgore, and a few other Guards to Underswap.”

 

Sans made a face. “Why in the fuck would we need to go to Underswap with _Asgore_?” Try as he might, he couldn’t think of any logical explanations as to why the fucking king would march off to some random ass universe, and drag _him_ along, of all people.

 

Papyrus shot him a look for the bitter tone, but didn’t bother to scold him about it. “Because that useless furball of a ruler wants legal access to Underswap. We have to meet with their queen.”

 

Sans grunted, finally taking that bite of food he had denied himself earlier. Fell universes had access to each other, but they had to ask permission to visit the other ones. Of course they could just disregard this rule and go anyway, but that would get them in trouble and cause problems that none of them needed. As far as Sans knew, the only non-Fell universes that allowed them access were Undertale and Underlust, both of which he had no interest in visiting. He’d only force himself into the line of sight of monsters from another universe if it meant he got something substantial out of it. Unfortunately, the king had made no moves to initiate a meeting with an Outer universe. He’d give a lot to see the stars. Still, though…

 

“That doesn’t explain why I have to go,” Sans complained, earning him another dirty look.

 

“I need you to vouch for me,” Papyrus hummed.

 

“...What?”

 

Papyrus sighed heavily, rolling his eyes and sneering as if Sans had missed something painfully obvious. Maybe he had. “Because, brother, Underswap’s Toriel needs to trust not only the king, but me as well to keep our people in check. I don’t think they want us burning their universe to the ground.”

 

True. Fell or no, dusting anyone from another universe was never allowed, and Underfell was known to be a little murder-happy. Sans sat back and was ready to forget the approaching event over the remainder of his dinner, but another thought had him bristling. “Wait, you mean… I’ll have to… like… speak? Publicly? In front of a bunch of randos from another fucking universe?” It would be bad enough it was just the assholes from where he was brought up, but so much worse with others.

 

“Don’t worry,” Papyrus sighed. “I already have a script printed for you, and I suggest you get to work on memorizing it so you don’t sound illiterate.”

 

Welp, he was fucked.


	3. Chapter 3

Blue yelped a bit, having have felt the heat of the magic against his cheek that time. Dodging had always been his brother’s thing, but whenever he managed to do it successfully, it left him with a nice window. He ducked forward, letting a bone construct manifest in his grip, then swung it upwards and managed to land it squarely on the underside of Alphys’ chin.

 

The reptilian monster grunted in surprise, dispelling the magic she had formed into an axe and then chuckling, rubbing at the spot that had been hit. “Nice one. Guess I should’ve seen that coming.”

 

Blue giggled. “Thanks. Are you alright?” Of course, without the intent to hurt each other, their attack magic did no real damage beyond a few little bumps, but he was still concerned.

 

Alphys nodded, then let another axe materialize in her hand, glowing and green in color. “I’m fantastic, but you sure won’t be once I’m done with you.”

 

Blue smirked, stepping back and shifting his weight back and forth on his feet. “We’ll see about that.”

 

Alphys raised the magical axe as if she was about to throw it, but this was way too bold and reckless for a first move while he was on guard, so Blue recognized the action as a fake out. He didn’t move, then quickly sidestepped when he saw the slightest of shifts in his friend’s expression. The axe that had been summoned behind him flew past him, and Alphys only stood there in bewilderment, not bothering to react as her own magic struck her in the chest. Her armor absorbed the blow, so she kept on standing just as still as ever, but after another few moments of silence, she drew a breath, letting the magic weapon in her hand fizzle out. “Okay. That was good.”

 

Blue cocked his head. “Thanks, Al.” He hesitated before continuing. “I mean… no offence, but you should have been able to deflect that. Is… is everything alright?”

 

Alphys looked angry at the criticism for a moment, but after hearing it stemmed from concern, she sighed and averted her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine, Sans. Just a little distracted, is all.”

 

“By what?”

 

Alphys shrugged and cracked a few of her knuckles. “It’s no big deal, really, but if you wanna talk about it, I need to get out of this armor first.”

 

Blue grinned. “Understandable. Want me to wait out here?”

 

Alphys rolled her eyes. “You and your goddamn traditional manners. No, you can obviously come in.”

 

Blue did just that, and waited in the kitchen while Alphys changed. He set his bag down and took off his own chestpiece, which wasn’t anything compared to the huge pile of metal Alphys wore, but it offered a bit of protection. He pulled his gloves off as well, stretching his hands out and setting the discarded pieces of attire aside. Alphys emerged in a tank and jeans, which provided some very comfortable contrast to her previous outfit, then walked over to her fridge and flung it open. Oh no. Blue knew what that meant. “We can talk after a cooking lesson, nerd!”

 

Blue shook his head, smiling, and walked over to the other monster. “What will we be making?”

 

“What we always do.”

 

Blue watched, bracing himself for what he knew was to come as his friend proceeded to set out a variety of ingredients for her food of choice. Tacos. He was legitimately scared that they were going to burn down her house one day, but he would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy these cooking ‘lessons’, it was one of the few times he was able to make a mess without consequence.

 

Once everything was set out, Alphys squared her shoulders and turned to face him, eyes blazing. “Are you ready?”

 

Blue scrunched his browbones together, putting on his best serious face. “I am.”

 

“Alright!” Alphys shouted much louder than necessary, turning to face the counter. “First, the meat. We need to cook it, or else we’ll die horribly, and that would be a shitty way to spend an afternoon.” Blue was already trying to suppress his laughter as she flung a cupboard open and pulled a pan out before slamming it down on the stove. “MEAT!” she shrieked.

 

Blue grabbed it with a shout of enthusiasm that sounded more like a choked bout of laughter, and Alphys gave her instructions. “Tear that packaging apart as if it threw Papyrus over a cliff and then denied the truth of anime!”

 

Blue growled deep in his throat, focusing on his pretend rage, then dug his fingers into the plastic and tore it open with a loud sound of anger. “Yeah!” Alphys hollered. “Karma, bitch! Now throw that loser into this pan so we can fry their worthless ass!”

 

Blue picked the meat up by the undamaged part of the container, raised it high above his head, then slammed it down into the pan, his feet leaving the ground in his enthusiasm. Alphys cheered him on, snatched up a rubber spatula, then stabbed it down into the mound of ground beef, making Blue wince a bit. Honestly, she was going to break her stove at this point.

 

“Justice!” Alphys shrieked, destroying the meat until it was a squished pile and some chunks had flown from the pan to various other resting places. “Spice!” she hissed once she was done, whirling to face Blue. “Dump spices into this meat as if each little speck of it was a Gold piece, and this pan was your wallet!”

 

Now that was an analogy Blue could get behind. Of the spices that Alphys had set out, using only a select few would produce the best result, but that was not up to a certain monster’s standards. And so, Blue found himself enthusiastically smothering the meat with way too much salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, cumin, oregano, thyme, and… cinnamon? Oh dear. Now his turn to demolish the pile of meat and seasoning, he tried to be as energetic as he could without sending plumes of spices directly into his own face.

 

After turning the burner up to max heat, Alphys was on the beans, opening a can with her teeth and then flinging its contents into another pan so hard that it splattered up and all over her. She took it in stride, growling and smearing the mess over herself like war paint. By some miracle of whatever gods people were believing in these days, Alphys was out of rice, so Blue was only left to chop up some vegetables as sloppily as he could manage.

 

He ended with a final stab into his pile of pulverized tomato - which he was apparently imagining as someone who scammed him out of all his money - hissing and then shouting, “Vengeance is mine!”

 

Alphys was coughing on her own laughter as she fumbled to get the meat, which was most certainly burned, off of the stove, doing same with the beans after she had managed. Once Alphys had wiped herself off, she put some shells on two plates and made them two tacos each as violently as she could manage. They sat down, and Alphys gestured to Blue to take a bite. With a breath, he did. It tasted… very, very interesting. He put on his best poker face. “It’s amazing.”

 

Alphys was already laughing before she took one bite, but as soon as she did, she spit it right back out and started laughing twice as hard. “Oh my god! What the hell? I need to arrest myself! These are awful!”

 

Blue joined her in her laughing, helping her clear away all of the wasted food once they had calmed down. It pained him to see what once had the potential to be edible be discarded so casually, but they still needed to eat. Blue reached into his bag and pulled out a couple of containers, then held them out to show Alphys. “Turns out I brought some actual food.”

 

Alphys huffed. “Rude. How dare you doubt our cooking abilities?”

 

Blue rolled his eyes, trying to mask his smile. “I didn’t, of course. This was just to be safe, even if the probability of us making something amazing was high.”

 

Alphys sat down with a chuckle, and Blue pulled the lids off of the containers, pushing one over to her. She picked up one of the things found inside. “Sushi? Well, aren’t you fancy. You were barely better than me when I started teaching you to cook!”

 

Indeed, a few years back, Blue had no more cooking experience than the average person, but seeing them so obviously and purposefully fail at making consumable food time after time inspired him to learn. “It’s not that hard to make,” he said with a shrug. “You just need a steady hand.” He smirked. “Sorry.”

 

Alphys swiftly flipped him off, but it was a friendly gesture, so Blue just chuckled. After a few minutes of idle conversation, he prompted her about the thing that had sent them inside in the first place. “So, what’s bothering you?”

 

Alphys halted in her chewing to make a face, then sighed and swallowed before replying. “It’s just that I’m worried about this weekend. Asgore from Underfell is coming to negotiate for access to Underswap.”

 

Blue nodded. Swapfell and a few other Fell universes had made deals with them, but not the first. “I’ve heard. What’s to be worried about?”

 

She sighed. “I… I don’t know. I’m not worried about Underfell having access, really, but I am worried that if they don’t get it, things might go wrong. They’re known for getting pretty angry over there… and with their anger comes a lot of violence.”

 

“So, what, you think they’ll start a war or something?” Blue asked. Wars between different universes were very rare, even with the most brutal of them.

 

Alphys shook her head. “No, I guess not.” Another sigh. “It’s stupid, really, but I uh… managed to get their Captain to hate me, so I’m not looking forward to sitting down to talk to him.”

 

“Him?” Blue pondered. “Who’s Captain over there?”

 

“Papyrus.”

 

Blue nearly choked. “What?!” He knew that all the universes had some pretty shocking differences, but he never would have guessed that one.

 

Alphys nodded. “He’s a huge ass, and all he cares about is power. I met him once in Undertale, said something that pissed him off, and now he still wants my head after all this time. I guess it’s just made me associate the whole universe with bad-ness.”

 

Blue looked down at what was left of his food. He did not like the sound of this Papyrus one bit, but he was sure that there were kind people over there, and he’d like to meet one. Everyone has the potential to be a good person, but unfortunately, not very many of them are willing to try. Which… was understandable, honestly. Blue didn’t know what type of person he’d be if he’d grown up in a place where it’s legal to murder anyone that doesn’t have youth or status to protect them, but he’d like to believe that there would still be people who valued him. That’s how the world should work. Everyone deserves love.


	4. Chapter 4

Sans took one look at that script and swiftly decided that he didn’t want to read it, so he didn’t. Ignoring your problems is the best short term solution out there, and he intended to take advantage of that. He indulged in this weekly with the thing he was currently being badgered about, actually.

 

“Sans, are you deaf, you dumb fuck? Tab. You owe me a shitload of money.”

 

“I’ve told you enough times to count for all the people my bro’s dusted,” Sans growled, “That I don’t get my check until the end of the fucking week. I’ll pay you then.”

 

Grillby sneered. “Wow, scary, your little bro’ll come and kill me, boo fucking hoo. Point is, I trust you just as much as I do someone drunk and on hallucinogens.”

 

Sans bristled, but knew that retaliating would get him nowhere desirable. “I’ve always paid it before, haven’t I? How about you fuck off and give me another drink.” He shoved his empty glass over to the fire elemental, who only snorted at him as a reply. 

 

Even so, he got the drink that he didn’t need. He was already drunk as fuck, so he downed the whisky in a single mouthful before shoving his hands into his pockets and stalking out of the establishment, keeping his head down to block out the looks of the other monsters that were drinking or gambling or whatever. They all hated his brother, and by extension, him. Too bad Papyrus’ negative reputation also came with fear, because nobody was brave enough to dust him and put him out of his misery. 

 

Sans didn’t really know where he was going, but his feet ended up taking him to Waterfall, the one place in the Underground that he actually enjoyed being in. Though the echo flowers were all uprooted by monsters who didn’t want to be heard, the water still shimmered and the starstones above were embedded too deeply in the walls and ceiling of the cavern for anyone to pry them away. He wandered for a while, until he came to a patch of alarmingly tall grass. He knew what it concealed, so he pushed into it, fumbling until he found the wall of the cavern and the small opening within it. He squeezed through with a breath, then took a few steps and knocked on the door to the house that resided in the small clearing he had entered.

 

It took a while for the door to be opened considering upwards of a dozen locks had to be unlatched, but after a stretch of small clicking sounds and shuffling from behind the door, it cracked open and the person within muttered something through the gap. “Come in.”

 

Sans did, entering the dark house and sitting down on the couch as its resident secured the door again. Once they had finished, they flicked on some dim lights and sat in a chair across from him, running their fingers through their hair and letting out a long breath. “Hey.”

 

Sans blinked lazily. “Hey, Undyne.”

 

The fish monster, once the revered Captain of the Royal Guard, would now be dusted upon sight by most, especially his brother. After refusing to kill the sixth human that fell Underground, she was challenged by Papyrus on the spot, who quickly defeated her in combat, got Asgore the human’s Soul, and earned the position he still held today. Undyne was lucky to have escaped with her life, but now she had to live in the shadows, going as far as to wear disguises whenever she was forced to venture into public territory by necessity. Sans was one of the few to know where she lived, along with Alphys and a couple of family members.

 

The monster sighed heavily, her tired yellow eyes sweeping over Sans’ frame. “You’re drunk.”

 

“Yup.”

 

She sighed again, fiddling with her hair. “Why do you come here, Sans?”

 

He shrunk into himself. “Do you… not want me to?”

 

“I don’t give a shit,” Undyne murmured, “I just don’t understand what you have to gain from it.”

 

Sans swallowed around the lump in his throat. Had it not crossed her mind that she was the closest to a friend he had? Perhaps that didn’t mean anything to her. “I uh… it’s quiet,” he settled on saying. “My bro can’t say shit and he sure as hell can’t find me here.”

 

Undyne nodded. “Exactly the reason I’m here in the first place. Has he changed at all?”

 

Sans snorted. “Negative. If anything, he’s worse. More arrogant, more power hungry, even easier to enrage…”

 

“Have you ever thought of ending it?”

 

“You mean kill myself?” He had thought about it very much.

 

“No,” Undyne said. “I meant kill your brother.”

 

“Oh.” Sure he had, in moments of rage, but he didn’t mean it. He couldn’t kill his brother, on multiple fronts. First off, he’d be dusted before he even got one hit in, but more than that, he didn’t want his brother dead. Sans still loved him, even though it kept screwing him over.

 

“I suppose that means no?” Undyne inquired.

 

“Uh, yeah…” Sans mumbled. “Kinda known him my whole life. Dustin ‘im now would be a dick move.”

 

“I understand,” Undyne said with a nod. “As you know, my life was fucked over because I couldn’t bring myself to kill some prepubescent human that was shivering and crying before me.” The sixth human had indeed been the youngest, though Sans hadn’t seen any of them aside from the last, who apparently arrived late in comparison to the other universes. 

 

Silence filled the room until Undyne spoke again. “Would you kill your father?”

 

Ah, that topic. The one that nobody in the Underground liked to talk about. Gaster was indeed a taboo subject, but Sans didn’t see why. Sure, he’d done some questionable things, but why bother pretending like they didn’t happen? But  _ would _ he kill him? His brother would have turned out a lot better if not for him, and Sans wouldn’t have been forced to care for the both of them after being left behind due to the scientist’s untimely death. “Maybe. Depends on how much energy I had. But he’s kinda dead, so…”

 

Undyne grunted. “I’d kill my mother if she wasn’t already dead. Normally I’m not so eager, but she’s the exception. Hated that bitch.”

 

Sans was well aware of that tale, so Undyne didn’t bother to tell it again. The silence that settled over them again was nice. It seemed to mute all of his other senses, his vision blurring at the edges as he stared contentedly at a particularly interesting smudge on the wall. Their conversations often went like this, where it was mostly quiet, but they threw a random topic at the other occasionally to discuss for a small while until it grew uninteresting again. 

 

“Why don’t you go work at the Lab?” Sans asked quietly.

 

Undyne waited a while before responding. “I… I don’t think I could commit to it. Sure, I’d have good company, and I’d be hidden, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be any happier there than I am here. It’s just not worth it, I guess.”

 

“Yeah,” Sans replied with a chuckle, “They don’t pay you enough there.” He’d worked at the Lab before his brother secured his spot as Captain and forced him to be a sentry instead. That was the only reason he knew Undyne - through Alphys, who had taken over after Gaster did his whole disappearing into the void act.

 

“I have a secret,” Undyne stated.

 

“What is it?” Sans didn’t understand why she would be telling him if it were a secret, but whatever.

 

“I’m drunk too.”

 

Sans snorted. Being drunk was indeed great, and it was helping him forget that he had to make a public speech in front of another universe's elites.

 

...Shit.


	5. Chapter 5

“Wow, Sans, you’re _so_ lazy. Wouldn’t hurt to hurry up a bit, would it?”

 

Blue huffed in defiance as he stepped into the cold air of Snowdin. “You’re one to talk. And hey, it’s not like it’s my fault that my sink was leaking!”

 

“Excuses, excuses,” Stretch sighed as they walked away from their house. “If my sink decided to turn on me, I’d just let it flood the house for the sake of being punctual.”

 

Blue giggled. “No, I’m pretty sure you’d just sit down and forget that the sink was leaking in the first place, so you’d be in the house when it flooded, and miss whatever event you were supposed to be at entirely.”

 

“Perfect.”

 

They continued in their walk, and to an outsider, it appeared they were going absolutely nowhere as they wound between the trees of Snowdin Forest, but they soon came to a small clearing. It was still inconspicuous, but notable. To travel between universes, you needed a portal, which every universe has. Catch is, they’re beyond expensive to make and only one is located in each universe, linking all of their Capitals. Another catch is that you have to pay to use them, which isn’t something Blue liked, exactly, but it made up a large portion of the taxes that helped him live his life, so he didn't resent it. Luckily, Dream and Ink, with their unique circumstances, were able to make portals anywhere and with very little effort, so they left one behind in every universe they visited, its location only revealed to people they trusted. This usually only consisted of the Sans, Papyrus, and anyone the skeleton brothers chose to share it with from each universe, but there were a few exceptions here and there.

 

Blue felt around with his foot in the snow until the toe of his boot caught on something. He nudged the offending object a bit more, and the space between two trees at the edge of the clearing gained an iridescent sheen. Blue stepped up to the portal with his brother, thought of his intended destination, and stepped through. It was a strange sensation, because it was as if reality had rejected his step and sent him back in the other direction, spinning him around and spitting him right back out into the clearing again. There were a few differences if you really looked, though. The bark of the trees was a single shade darker, and there was a nest up in the branches of one of them that wasn’t there in Underswap.

 

“We need a sign here that says ‘Welcome to Undertale’,” Stretch said after appearing in the clearing beside him.

 

“I think that might ruin the discrete nature of the location,” Blue chuckled, gesturing for his brother to follow him.

 

A lot of complaining from Stretch about a relatively short walk later, they arrived at what appeared to be their house, and knocked on the door. Undertale’s Papyrus, dubbed Rus, opened the door after a few short seconds, greeting them happily and leading them inside. “They’re here, you lazybones!” Rus shouted in the direction of the stairs once they were all seated on the couch.

 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” the voice of his brother, Comic, responded.

 

True to his word, the skeleton wandered down the stairs a minute later, plopping down onto the couch beside Stretch and giving him a friendly nod, which was returned. Rus’ cooking was good as it always was, and after dinner, as expected, Comic and Stretch were doing nothing but showing each other memes and laughing themselves into coughing fits over them. Blue never understood what was so funny about them, but they made his brother happier than most things, so he still had an appreciation for them in that respect.

 

“Okayokayokay- what about this one?” Stretch choked out, turning the screen of his phone to show the other skeleton.

 

Comic cocked his head, seeming confused for a second, but his eyesockets stretched wide and he slapped a hand over his mouth after a moment. A strangled sound that Blue could only assume to be some type of laughter left him, which led to Stretch losing his composure as well, then in turn made what little control Comic had abandon him, and he burst into laughter as well.

 

Rus sighed heavily, gazing with an affectionate exasperation glimmering in his eyelights at the two skeletons. Blue agreed with that sentiment. Even if his brother drove him absolutely insane, he didn’t know what he would do without him. “Comic made this year’s 100th pun about spines earlier today,” Rus chuckled.

 

Blue nodded, empathizing with that as well. He didn’t hate puns, they could actually be pretty funny if used correctly, but the problem was that when it came to his brother - along with most Sanses and Swap Papyruses - correctness was simply not in their pun vocabulary. They were all overused and unplanned. A good pun is thought of in advance and said at exactly the right moment, and Blue had experienced this with his brother exactly two times that he remembered.

 

“Hey, uh, guys?” Comic prompted.

 

“Yeah?” Blue and Rus answered together.

 

“We’re going to take this meme party upstairs,” Stretch said with a cough.

 

Blue knew that meant they were going to be doing nothing else than getting high together, and he didn’t exactly approve, but there was nothing he could do about it, so he only sighed and rolled his eyes. “Alright, then. See you two later.”

 

Rus gave the two of them a dirty look during every second of their journey up the stairs, but took a breath once they were out of his line of sight, turning to face Blue instead. “So. I hear you’re getting a visit from the folks in Underfell? I was just a babybones when they came to negotiate with us, but from what I hear, their Asgore is… unpleasant, at best.”

 

Blue bit the inside of his cheek in thought. “Yeah, my Alphys says that their Captain is also rude, who is, believe it or not-”

 

“Papyrus,” Rus finished for him with a nod. “I’ve met him.”

 

“Oh. And hey, what are their nicknames, then?” Blue had never met either of them, and had heard very little.

 

Rus shrugged. “I don’t think they have any. When Dream and Ink visited them, Fell Paps refused any alternate names for him or his brother. And your Al is right, he’s… not the nicest guy.” He looked hesitant for a moment before reaching up to his shoulder and pulling back the sleeve of the shirt he was in. “I only encountered him once, but I managed to get in his way, and he gave me this.”

 

On Rus’ shoulder resided a scar. It was small, but deep. Blue winced at the sight. “Ouch. I’d hate to think of my brother being like that.” A thought struck him with this. “What’s Fell Sans like?”

 

Rus smoothed his shirt out. “I only met him once too, and he wasn’t exactly rude to me or anything, but pretty far from friendly too. He just told me to leave him alone and ran off.” He paused, hesitating. “I think he was afraid of me.”

 

Blue raised his browbones. “Why? Seems like he wouldn’t have much to worry about, with such an aggressive brother on his side.”

 

Rus looked down. “That’s just the thing. I don’t think his Papyrus… is on his side, really.”

 

Blue’s eyelights shrunk to pinpricks, the thought alone horrifying to him. “You mean…”

 

Rus nodded, looking equally disturbed. “I wish I could help him, but I've never gotten the chance, and even if I did, I don't think he would respond well to it.”

 

Blue frowned, looking down. Of course, his first instinct was to ask himself what he could do for the other monster, but it wasn't even legal for the two of them to visit one another's universes. He could only hope the meeting went well and that would be soon to change.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ship cameo 2: Fell Alphyne [implied to be a future reality.]

The only thing Sans knew was if he ignored his orders and let his room get this messy, Papyrus would dust him. Alphys caught him staring, and made a face. “What? This is the only place I have with comfortable chairs.”

 

Unsurprisingly, she proceeded to take the _singular_ comfortable chair that resided in her room, even though she could have sat on her bed, so Sans was left with leaning against a wall, trying not to kick over any of the empty containers of instant noodles littered around the room. Alphys wasn’t exactly his friend, but they knew they shared each other’s problems of loneliness, so Sans returned to visit the Lab sometimes. “So…” he said lamely, although he knew the prompt would be plenty to get the other talking.

 

“Okay, you’ll never believe what happened,” Alphys said, already fidgeting in excitement.

 

When she didn’t continue, Sans responded with, “What?”

 

“Undyne texted me.”

 

Sans rolled his eyes. “Uh, okay? You guys text every fucking day.”

 

“I know,” Alphys snorted, “But she texted _me_ this time. I always have to start the conversations, even though it gives me a uh… a-anxiety attack… every time…” she finished sheepishly.

 

Sans had the feeling that if he texted with anyone recreationally, it would go the same way. Nobody ever talked to him unless they had to. “What’d she say?”

 

“She just said hi,” Alphys responded with a shrug.

 

Sans nodded. “Sounds like she didn’t know what to say.”

 

“I-Is that bad..?”

 

Sans grinned, gold tooth glinting in the fluorescent lighting of the room. “Nah, just means she wants into your pants as bad as you do hers.”

 

Alphys’ mouth fell open, and her face steadily reddened until it looked almost comical. She finally broke after a few moments, slamming her face into her hands and failing in her attempts to deny Sans’ claim. “N-N-No I d-don’t- and I-I-I’m sure that she d-doesn’t e-either-”

 

Sans waited it out, allowing the other monster to splutter and trip over her words for near a minute before she finally let out a long groan and practically deflated. “Okay, sure, b-but I’m sure that’s n-not why she texted me.”

 

Sans shrugged. “She hates social interaction just as much as you do nowadays, so unless she really likes you, I can’t think of a reason she’d initiate anything.”

 

Alphys’ expression shifted of one to one of bitterness. “Everything used to be so much better.”

 

“When?” Sans would say that the times before he even existed were his favorite.

 

“Before your cockswallowing twat of a brother took over the Guard. Before that dumb kid dragged their dumb ass in front of Undyne and obliterated her career,” Alphys muttered, then glanced up at him, expression sour. “Now we’re all walking on eggshells and if what you said is true, I probably would have been with Undyne at this point.”

 

Sans’ eyelights clouded over. He could never decide if the nostalgia was a good or bad thing. On one hand, those earlier years had been euphoric in comparison to his life now, but on the other, it only made him more unhappy in the present to ruminate on the fact that things had grown to be different.

 

“I don’t even know how a relationship with her would work now,” Alphys continued, “It would have to be secret for sure, unless we had a mutual death wish.”

 

Relationships in Fell universes were complicated. You never broadcasted them to anyone you didn’t trust until marriage, at which point people tended to avoid dusting you in the hopes that you’d have kids, which they seemed to have a shortage of. Sans shivered at the thought of children. They were terrifying.

 

“Do you like anyone?” Alphys sighed, bringing him back.

 

“Huh? Uh, no,” Sans snorted, shifting. There was nothing more true he could have said, he hated nearly everyone he knew, and the few that he didn’t would still probably vomit at the thought of being close to him in that way. The feeling was either reciprocated or not given a shit about. Lacking hate for someone was far from trusting them.

 

“Grillby?”

 

Sans stared at her, face wrinkled in disgust. “What the fuck. No. For one, he’s a bitch, wears cheap cologne and I hate him, and I’m pretty sure he’d rather take an ice bath than get anywhere near me.”

 

“But you go to his place all the time,” Alphys pointed out.

 

“Yeah, but that’s because I pay him and because he gives me alcohol in return,” Sans snorted.

 

Alphys sighed in defeat, scratching at her chin. “That random lady that you don’t even know?”

 

Sans raised a browbone. “You mean that one rando who hates the world more than I do and refuses to leave the Ruins? I don’t really think it would work out all that well, considering we’d have to do all of our romantic shit through some giant ass stone door and we’d be about as compatible as a cactus and my throat that just so happens to lack a gag reflex.”

 

Alphys gave him a look for that last analogy, but nodded in understanding with a breath. “I need to ship you with someone, Sans. Get on it. I need to write very explicit fanfiction about you sticking your dick in someone.”

 

Sans made a face. “How about you don’t? You’ll either give me a cock so huge I could stab someone to dusting with it, or one so microscopic it’d be smaller than your clit, so uh, back the fuck off.”

 

Alphys proudly held a hand up with the middle finger raised before replying. “Nah. I’d probably either give a hemipenis, a pussy, or just both.”

 

“What in the actual fuck.”

 

Even in the extremely unlikely event that Sans ended up meeting someone who actually enjoyed his company, he’d still take a hard pass on any sort of relationship. It had been years since his last, which had ended… _badly_. Very, very badly. Then in the extremely, extremely unlikely event that he somehow ended up with someone, he wouldn’t let them touch him in a million years - at least not intimately. There were quite a few bad memories associated with the subject.

 

Alphys continued on to give him several graphic threats about a situation in which he fell for Undyne, and after a few more minutes of sarcastic and unfulfilling banter, he left the Lab, knowing he would like where he had to go no more than the place he had just departed from.

 

He dug around in his jacket pocket once he reached his house, mumbling out a stream of curses as the damn thing kept escaping him, then finally gripped his key to the house and let himself inside as quietly as possible, but his attempted stealth turned out to be for nothing when he found his brother waiting for him only a few feet away from the door. “Brother.”

 

“Uh… y-yeah?”

 

“You’re late.”

 

Sans had a very strong desire to point out the fact that he had already had dinner with his brother and did the chores he was assigned before he had gone out, but whatever sense he had to claim as his own stopped him. Whatever Papyrus said was the law - quite literally, in fact, as long as Asgore approved it, which he often did. The two were a great match with how ruthless they were. Now _that_ would make an interesting fic for Alphys to take on.

 

“Er… sorry… Boss…”

 

“Don’t bother apologizing, Sans, that doesn’t fix it. We have to leave for Underswap early tomorrow, so I want you to get plenty of sleep. I can’t have you fucking up your speech and humiliating our entire universe, as you seem to have a habit of doing,” Papyrus snorted. “Speaking of, I trust you’ve memorized the script?”

 

“Yup.” He still hadn’t even read it.

 

Papyrus began to walk away, but some foolish part of Sans’ Soul ached for him to stay, so he called out, voice small. “B-Bro?”

 

Papyrus snapped his head back over his shoulder, eyelights glimmering with anger at the affectionate nickname, but he thankfully let it slip. “What?”

 

Sans came to the very fast conclusion that he had made a grave mistake, so to save himself, he scrambled for an excuse. “Uh, I uh, uhm, I… wonder what I’m like in Underswap..?” he tried, sounding just about as stupid as he felt.

 

“You’re exactly the same,” Papyrus said, and to Sans’ surprise, there was a laugh in his voice that didn’t sound bitter. “Just a good for nothing pussy-whipped bitch. Go to sleep.”

 

Ah. Right. Perhaps bitterness wouldn’t have been so bad.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ship cameo 3: HoneyBBQ [implied to be a future reality.]

“I just want to be put out of my misery at this point.”

 

Blue looked over to where his brother was sleeping, snuggling against the version of himself from Swapfell, Slim. The aforementioned skeleton’s brother, Black, let out another heavy sigh and looked to Blue again. “Seriously, this has been going on for near a decade. It’s not as if I like it, but there’s nothing I can do about it! They’re just being teases at this point- but I didn’t mean I wanted what they’re teasing-”

 

Blue smiled, rolling his eyes. Black had always been awful at denying things. “Come on, they’re cute.”

 

“No they aren’t!” the Fell skeleton hissed, crossing his arms and turning his chin up.

 

Blue didn’t want to waste his time wrestling a confession away from the other monster, so he instead just looked back towards Stretch. Indeed, he and Slim had been friends forever, and the romantic tension was absolutely unreal, but Blue never questioned his brother about it. Stretch had enough anxiety as it was, so he didn’t need unwanted talk about delicate subjects as a side dish. Slim nuzzled into Stretch’s shoulder in his sleep, and Blue allowed himself a smile. No matter the nature of their relationship, they made each other happy, and that was more than enough for him.

 

Blue sighed and turned back to his friend. “Um… do you know anything about… Underfell Papyrus?” The subject was still fresh in his mind, but Blue was surprised at the shift in Black’s expression, changing from its normal look of disdain at everything around him to one of raw rage.

 

“I know I want nothing to do with him,” Black spat.

 

Blue sat there, unsure of what to say as unease churned in his Soul. “Um… care to elaborate..?” he eventually said.

 

Then it happened again, the anger from before melting away to reveal the darkness under his sockets and the lines in his face that shouldn’t be there at his age. “I…” Black sighed, averting his eyes and then closing them. “He um… he used to be my friend, actually. He’s one year older than me, so when we were… I don’t know, nine or ten, we would get together with our brothers and we would ‘train’ for the Royal Guard.” A smile flickered across his face. “We were _so_ convinced that we were going to be the Captains, and we said we would make sure that my queen and his king made an alliance so we could work together and always spend time together even though we would have such taxing jobs.” He laughed, but the sound was bitter and hollow. “So as it turns out, we somehow accomplished the most unrealistic part of the plan, but fell through on the rest. We hate each other, and I’m pretty sure Fell Asgore doesn’t despise my queen any less than he does everyone else in the fucking multiverse.”

 

Black finally opened his eyes, and Blue slowly extended a hand to place on his friend’s shoulder. He tensed at first, but relaxed after a moment. “I’m sorry,” Blue murmured.

 

Black looked like he was about to protest against the pity for a moment, but let it go. “Uh… yeah, me too. We were best friends, but over time he just… _changed_.” He said the word like it was a curse.

 

“In what way?” Blue asked, retracting his hand.

 

“Well, he forgot what was important, first off,” Black said, face pained. “Fell universes have their challenges, sure, but we’re not heartless, or at least I like to think that. I have to put on a show to make sure I don’t appear weak and get myself dusted, but he forgot it was a show.”

 

“How?” Blue’s voice sounded incredibly small.

 

Black crossed his legs. “‘Kill or be killed’ is a really bad way to put it, because it’s not exactly promoting murder as the best option, it’s just saying that your own survival should be put above all else. I guess he took it too literally and decided that unless everyone was terrified of him, it meant that he’d end up a pile of dust in the snow.”

 

“Everyone?” His voice was practically a squeak at that point.

 

Black nodded. “He’s… not the nicest to his brother, if that’s what you mean. I don’t remember much about the guy, honestly. He was always pretty quiet, but… he loved his Papyrus, I can tell you that.” He was silent for a moment before speaking again. “I did too, and I never stopped.” He stole a glance at Slim before looking at Blue again. “I hope you know that.”

 

“I do.”

 

The two did their best to return to normal conversation after that, and once Blue had let his brother sleep for a while longer, he woke him to leave when it had started to get dark outside. Once they had made it back to their home in Underswap, Blue hesitated outside the doorway, causing Stretch to glance back at him and raise a browbone. “You comin, bro?”

 

Blue took longer to answer than he would have liked. “Um, no. I just remembered that we’re out of milk, so I should run to the store.” He cringed at his own words, but comforted himself with a promise that he _would_ actually return with the milk that they did indeed need.

 

Stretch shrugged. “Aight. See you later, Sans.”

 

Blue nodded, and as soon as the door was closed, dashed off to find himself outside of a house rather than a store, then knocked on the door and shuffled his feet. It was opened a small while later, and Alphys greeted him before cocking her head. “It’s pretty late, Sans. What’s up?”

 

“Can I come in?” Blue asked hesitantly.

 

Alphys looked skeptical, but still stepped aside and made no complaints when he entered the house. “So…”

 

“Can I attend the meeting?” Blue blurted, turning to face her.

 

“Uh, what?”

 

“Tomorrow,” Blue explained with a breath. “The meeting with Underfell Asgore. Can I go?”

 

Alphys seemed confused on how to respond. “Uh… I mean… only the more powerful monsters are going to be there and… I guess there are a few seats in the back and I could tell the Guards to let you in… but why would you want to go in the first place? It’ll be boring as all hell.”

 

Blue was well aware of that, but the Papyrus and Sans from Underfell had been refusing to leave his thoughts, and he couldn’t pass the chance to see or possibly meet them. He couldn't help but think - perhaps a bit foolishly - that he could do something to help. “I… I’m just curious to see what it’s like,” he ended up saying, which wasn’t all that far from the truth anyway.

 

Alphys pondered this, then nodded. “Sure, I guess. Feel free to back out, though. I don’t even want to go.”

 

Blue deflated with relief, thanked his friend, then left for the store as he had promised his brother, equally excited and nervous for the event and what it might bring.


	8. Chapter 8

Sans woke the next morning to knocking like he always did, but it was softer this time, almost as if his brother didn’t want to disturb him too much. “Sans, get out of bed and come downstairs for breakfast. We need to leave in an hour,” Papyrus growled through the door, though his voice lacked the bite it normally had.

 

“Okay,” Sans called weakly, but it seemed to have been enough as he heard his brother’s footsteps travel away down the hall.

 

He knew he was beyond fucked, so he decided that dwelling on it would do him no good, instead choosing to stand and throw his clothes on before joining his brother as instructed.

 

Papyrus sighed upon seeing him, shaking his head. “You’re not wearing that. Put something nicer on.”

 

Sans frowned and looked down at himself. The outfit he usually wore consisted of the same heavy, fluffy jacket he always refused to take off, a red sweater, and a pair of shorts, but it’s not as if they were stained or anything. The logic did nothing to help him, so he only nodded and trudged back up the stairs to pick through all of the clothes he never wore. After a sizable stretch of searching, he eventually found a pair of black jeans that looked nice enough and was able to pull one shirt from the back of his closet that wasn’t horrendously wrinkled. He pulled a leather jacket on over that, very uncomfortable to think of entering another fucking universe without his jacket in place of the current remnant of his bolder style from the past he was wearing now. Finally, he deduced that since he didn’t own another pair of shoes, he was stuck with the same worn sneakers he wore every day before rejoining his brother.

 

Papyrus’ sanguine eyelights swept over his frame, scrutinizing everything they saw, but he eventually gave a curt nod. “Good enough. Your food’s on the table, and then as long as you don’t leave the house, you can do whatever you like until seven.”

 

Now that surprised him. Perhaps this would be one of his brother’s good days, which were growing more and more elusive as time dragged on. “T-Thanks Boss…” Sans said quietly, to which he got another nod in return. Papyrus started to leave the room, but upon remembering something else, Sans stopped him again. “Wait- I uh, I know what to say and stuff, but can I still bring the script so that… it looks like I’m not winging it..?” Smooth.

 

Papyrus stopped, squinting in thought, then grunted. “I suppose. Just don’t look at it too much.”

 

“Sure thing.” If that wasn’t a lie, Sans didn’t know what was.

 

After choking down the food that had been set out for him, he spent the next stretch of time trying to convince himself that his life wasn’t completely over. He didn’t do very well, but once they left the house, Sans was successful enough at masking his new state of having a constant anxiety attack to avoid questioning. He lost his grip on the facade once they entered Asgore’s castle, and was practically trembling when he actually caught sight of the king, who approached his brother and held out a large hand. Papyrus grabbed it firmly and shook it once, Asgore giving no more than a glance to Sans before the three of them ventured from the castle again.

 

They met up with three other Guards outside, who were apparently going with them. Sans was sure that nobody from Underswap would try to attack them, let alone succeed in doing so without being promptly dusted by Asgore or Papyrus, but the two of them were simply too paranoid. Sans had never known such vast arrogance could even accompany any sort of paranoia, but he never really let himself be surprised by anything anymore.

 

Because it was the most convenient for the king, the portal was practically across the street once they had made it past the huge, heavily guarded walls that surrounded the castle. It resembled an archway, though it was larger than the average house and was swarmed with dozens of Guards and lower level security enforcers. They parted as soon as they caught sight of Asgore, allowing the imposing monster to walk up to the portal and fiddle with the controls himself in place of the worker that usually did, who had stepped back and was standing stiffly among their colleagues. Once Underswap had been selected, Asgore wasted no time before stepping through the portal, Papyrus following soon after. Sans took a deep breath, biting his tongue in an attempt to distract himself from the dread sitting heavy in his Soul, then stepped through as well.

 

Sans had only been to Undertale a few times, so it still blew his mind every time he set foot in a non-Fell universe. Everything was so… _bright_. It almost hurt his eyes, the buildings and roads constructed of light and glimmering materials rather than the drab ones back in his universe. There were only a few Guards standing around the portal, and they welcomed them stiffly, but stepped back once a reptilian monster walked up the ramp that lead to the portal and stood before Asgore. “Welcome to Underswap,” Alphys said with a nod. “I’m sure you know the meeting will start in approximately four hours.”

 

“I am,” Asgore rumbled, returning the nod he had received, although he clearly wasn’t happy about having to perform the formality.  

 

Alphys opened her mouth to reply, but her gaze flicked to Edge for a minute and Sans felt his brother stiffen beside him. Ah, what a surprise. Papyrus had made yet another enemy. Alphys recovered quickly, meeting Asgore’s gaze again and speaking. “Because our queen would like to make sure your stay here is comfortable, she’s offering each of you a free meal at the restaurant in her castle and a temporary stay in one of the available suites.”

 

If it had been Papyrus she was talking to, he would have turned his nose up at the offers, scoffing at the notion that they needed any special treatments from such weak monsters in an equally weak place, but Asgore, just as greedy for material things as he was for power, accepted, though his voice had no gratitude in it. They were all escorted to their rooms, and Sans was unfortunately stuck with sharing one with his brother.

 

Papyrus, confronted with free time for once in his life, did nothing but pace the room and mutter what he was probably planning to say at the meeting under his breath, while Sans just curled up on the bed and buried his face in a pillow, hoping it would protect him from whatever the hell life was planning on throwing at him. There was no way his brother was going to take them to this restaurant and risk them getting poisoned, so that was out, and he could only sleep in his own bed, so a nap was off of the table as well. Left with nothing but boredom and the very strong desire to burst into tears, Sans instead managed to separate himself from his senses enough that it startled him when his brother addressed him.

 

“Sans. It’s time to go.”

 

He scrambled more than a little ungracefully off of the bed and snatched the script off of the table where he had set it, then slotted his claws back into the little punctures in the paper that he had made through his anxiety-ridden grip. “Okay.”

 

They ventured out of the castle’s living quarters, meeting Asgore and the other Fell Guards in the vast hallway that they emerged into. Some of Underswap’s Guards led them along, and it felt like forever had passed, every step just as agonizing as the last, before they finally came to a large set of doors. “This is the courtroom,” one of the Guards said, turning to face them. “Enter whenever you’re ready.”

 

Asgore wasted no time before pushing the doors inward with his large, freakishly muscular hands, then strolled into the space beyond it without hesitation, garnet cape flaring out behind him. Papyrus followed, and Sans was next, though he didn’t really register it. He found himself sat in a chair, and he distantly wondered how long it had been since he had taken a breath as the edges of his vision started to fade to black. This was too much. Too much, too much, too much.

 

What brought him back ended up being a voice much more gentle than he had heard in a while, and it surprised him enough to open his throat. Sans sucked in a shuddering breath, blinking and glancing around the room as he continued to drown in his panic, at least a bit more present this time around. The room was large, predominately made up of pristine white and dark golds to contrast the brightness. The voice he had heard earlier turned out to be Queen Toriel, who was welcoming them with a genuine kindness glimmering in her eyes before sitting back down at the stand where it seemed she belonged. Next to her was Alphys, posture stiff but face effectively neutral, with a few other monsters sitting behind the two Swap monsters.

 

As more of the world came back to him, Sans realized that there was an identical configuration on the other side of the room where he was, only Asgore and Papyrus were sitting up front instead of Toriel and Alphys, with him as one of the monsters in the back of them. The two groups were facing each other and raised up on platforms at the front of the room, but Sans’ Soul dropped when he realized what the rest of the room contained. Many, _many_ monsters. All from Underswap, all with their gazes directed at places way too close to him, and all of them perfectly capable of sending him straight into his own grave from pure panic alone.

 

Sans closed his eyes, and he didn’t hear a thing, either by some sort of subconscious choice, or because his body completely gave out on him in its state. A sharp elbow to the side, and he was standing. He was so incredibly convinced he was going to fall over, but he managed to make it to the centerpoint between the two groups of leaders, where there was a microphone and he was expected to speak. Sans set the script down on the space provided, and formed his mouth to speak the words it said. He looked at the paper the entire time. Sweat dripped down his skull, and he couldn’t hear himself talking, but he was sure he was at least speaking coherently, because nobody had hit him yet.

 

He turned the page, the violent tremble in his hands turning the task into quite the endeavor, and continued. The next page, and then the next. He distantly clung onto the realization that he only had a few paragraphs left, but his awareness snapped back to him in full when he reached one of the last sentences.

 

Sans remembered the first time Papyrus had told him to refer to him as ‘Boss’ even outside of work. He remembered how the word had tasted like poison on his tongue, how it had given his pillow quite the absorption task that night, how it had earned him an impressive bruise when he forgot about it, and then how he had eventually grown used to it. But now… to say to an entire universe… ‘ _Underfell Papyrus is a great boss._ ’ It… no… he couldn’t…

 

Sans finally looked up, finding countless pairs of eyes trained on him. Bile rose in his throat, and he was convinced he was going to vomit, or maybe pass out, or perhaps crumble to dust right then and there, but somehow, his body allowed him a few more words. “And… um… yeah.”

 

He ran.


	9. Chapter 9

Blue felt bad about lying to his brother so much. For one, about the reason why he had gone out the previous night, and then again now about where he was going, which was Outertale, as far as Stretch knew. While seeing the stars was something Blue always loved, he didn’t go anywhere near them or even another universe at all, instead hopping on the ferry and fidgeting as it took him to the Capital.

 

He figured he had to lie about attending the meeting, because if he didn’t it would open up an entire string of questions he didn’t need and Stretch might have tried to go with him, even. Blue shuffled his feet so much in the boat that the person next to him told him to knock it off, annoyance clear in their voice. Blue mumbled his apologies, but luckily didn’t have to sit with his embarrassment for much longer before he was scurrying off towards the castle.

 

Once there, he made his way through the winding halls, having memorizing them in his spare time in his desire to join the Guard, which he now knew wasn’t going to happen. He tried not to think about it. He reached a large set of doors, and one of the highest ranking guards stopped him, sighing. “I’m sorry, you need authorization to enter this area at this time-”

 

“Let him through, Jai.”

 

Blue turned to see Alphys, dressed not in her usual armor or casual attire, but something much more fancy that he knew she hated. The Guard stepped aside in response to her words, and Blue nodded at them before pushing through the doors with Alphys. A few of the more politically powerful of Underswap’s monsters were already seated at the front, along with Toriel, who gave them a wave as they approached. “Hello, Alphys.” She dipped her head in Blue’s direction. “Sans.”

 

Blue greeted her in return, and was directed to a seat in the very back of the room where he could seat himself. He did just that, and watched as more and more monsters began to trickle into the room over the next half an hour. He was quite early, but he felt as if it would be rude to get his phone out at this point, though he was sure nobody would care.

 

The entire room fell silent in the shortest span of time it was capable of when the doors to the room were flung open, and a large figure stepped through them, walking down the aisle between the two sections of seats and to the front without hesitation. This was undoubtedly Underfell Asgore, adorned with blacks and reds and golds and looking extremely painful to hug, both because of all the spikes and because it seemed as if he’d dust you if you tried.

 

Next came Fell Papyrus, and Blue blinked a few times in simple disbelief. Sure, he was expecting the harsh clothing and dark color scheme, but the thing that really got him, even from his distance and angle, was the expression on his face. It wasn’t easily described as anything other than angry, at everything and everyone. Blue swallowed, shifting uncomfortably, then flicked his gaze to the next monster that entered the room. It was Sans, head bowed so low that Blue was sure it was hurting his neck and dragging his feet so much that it could be called impressive.

 

A few more Fell monsters followed behind, but Blue couldn’t take his eyes away from the versions of him and his brother, one looking like he wanted everyone in the room dead and the other looking like he wanted himself dead. Nothing changed with Papyrus and Asgore once they had sat, but Fell Sans only tucked into himself further once one of the others gripped him by a shoulder and pushed him down into a seat at the front behind his superiors.

 

The room was still deathly quiet, but it seemed to take a collective sigh of relief when the queen stood and spoke. “Hello, everyone. We’re here today with the king of Underfell, Asgore.”

 

She gestured to where he sat across the room from her and he stood as well, the plates of his armor scraping together and his horns not too far from hitting the ceiling. “Yes,” he stated, voice resonating around the room with its roughness replacing the emotion that should have been there.

 

Politics had never been of particular interest to Blue, so he didn’t spend too much time pondering what they were talking about. They started first with the formalities, then went back and forth stating the rules of their universes. Alphys was next to speak, moving to the center and up to a microphone before explaining her job. Why she did it, what she did with it, and how she would use the skills to protect the citizens of both the universes provided they were within hers.

 

Blue perked up once Fell Papyrus stood, following the tall skeleton with his gaze as he walked to where Alphys had previously been standing. He said similar things to Alphys, voice a lot sharper than Blue was expecting. Each word sounded more like a bark, and each sentence could have passed for an order. Because his words were obviously scripted, Blue couldn’t really tell anything about his personality from them, but a few sentences did… concern him a bit with their wording. He sat down, and Toriel called up one of her advisers to speak of their opinions on the matter. They of course said that safety was above all else in this universe and all things of the like, asking a few open-ended questions that made Asgore and Papyrus bristle along the way.

 

Alphys called up her second in command to speak next, and after that, Toriel extended the same courtesy to their guests. “Do you have any other representatives from your universe that you would like to have speak today, King Asgore?”

 

“Yes,” the monster replied, casting a glance over his shoulder. “The Captain’s brother.”

 

Nothing happened for a moment, but then Fell Sans was scrambling out of his seat and trudging painfully slowly to the microphone, setting a pack of paper down on the stand there with trembling hands. Blue frowned, his Soul aching for the monster. He obviously couldn’t do anything to help, but he surely would if he could, considering how clear it was that the Fell skeleton was on the verge of crumpling to the ground. Blue would never force his brother into a situation that he knew would cause such anxiety unless it was absolutely necessary, which this certainly wasn’t.

 

Fell Sans glanced up briefly, revealing glistening crimson eyelights and a trembling mouth of sharp teeth, one of which was gold and acting as the origin point for a crack that traveled up through his eyesocket and wrapped around the top of his skull. The red-eyed Sans looked back down the second he had lifted his head, drew a deep breath that was painfully loud in the microphone, and spoke. His voice was scratchy and strained, but it managed to keep from faltering. Red-Eyed Sans spoke of how invaluable his brother was to their entire universe, and how most of them would be dead if not for him. Blue chewed on the inside of his cheek, knowing each and every word was a lie as he watched red tinged sweat begin to slicken his alternate’s skull.

 

The speech seemed to drag on for hours, so it was quite jarring when it suddenly stopped, Red-Eyed Sans’ mouth hanging open as if the words had gotten caught in his throat. He slowly closed his mouth after a few moments, then looked up, his eyelights blurry and his entire being looking like it was a single tap away from collapsing. “And… um… yeah,” he choked out.

 

Blue along with everyone else in the room watched as Red-Eyed Sans practically fell from where he stood and ran far quicker than anyone in his state was safe doing down the middle of the room and crashed out of the doors. They clattered shut again after a moment, the sound echoing in the silence of the room and sending a little jolt down Blue’s spine. Toriel’s voice eventually filled his skull again, but the words barely registered. It must have been minutes before he finally tore his gaze away from those doors, swallowing hard and trying to listen to what was being said. It seemed as if everyone was making their final statements, and after Toriel turned to exchange a few hushed words with Alphys, she stood and cleared her throat.

 

“I’m afraid I am not able to grant access to Underswap, King Asgore. We’ll all be happy to meet again in one year’s time for reevaluation, but as of now, I don’t believe it would be of everyone’s best interest. Feel free to stay tonight in our universe, but paperwork must continue be filed and processed for anyone else who wishes to visit because of an emergency from this point forward.”

 

“I see.” Asgore’s voice was calm, and his posture was as well, but Blue could see the unbridled rage blazing in his eyes. The king stood and began to stalk towards the exit, eyes set hard again as they sparkled with hatred. He suddenly grunted in surprise as a hand came down hard on his shoulder and someone pushed past him.

 

It was Fell Papyrus, doing a much poorer job of hiding his anger as he stormed towards the doors and threw them open with enough force to rattle Blue’s chair before continuing past them. Asgore gathered himself, looking even more infuriated than before, and left alongside the other few monsters he had brought with him.

 

Then, for the first time since the Fell monsters had entered the room, everyone still remaining within it seemed to relax. Toriel wrapped things up with a few words, weariness visible on her face, then dismissed everyone. Though it was conspicuous, Blue wasted no time before leaping to his feet and dashing from the room. He had to find the red-eyed Sans- he had to do something- _anything_ to help him.

 

The only problem was that he had no idea where the skeleton had gone, but if Red-Eyed Sans knew anything about the layout of the castle - which was surely the same in Underfell - he would also know that the nearest exit point from here was only one right turn and a hallway away. So that’s where Blue went, focusing all of his energy on the simple goal of propelling him along as quickly as he could manage. He received a few strange looks, but paid them no mind, and continued, only slowing in order to not crash into the door leading from the castle.

 

He skidded to a halt and pushed through it, then glanced around the alleyway he found himself in, and saw nobody in the space but him. Blue stood there, taking a few deep breaths and wondering what his next move should be, but didn’t get a chance to continue on before a sound akin to a whimper caught his attention. It came from the back of the alley, so Blue hesitantly approached the area, though only silence followed the initial noise.

 

Once he got close enough to see that the alley actually turned and continued on, he quickened his pace, reaching the bend in the path and stopping before the small dead end that it lead to. Red-Eyed Sans was there, leaning against a wall and clutching at the top of his forearm. Blue quickly noticed the tear in the fabric near his radius, and the dark marrow oozing from the bone that was exposed beneath it.

 

Once the initial shock faded enough, Blue dashed towards the other monster, Soul thudding in his sternum. “St-Stars! What happened? H-Here, let me-”

 

Red-Eyed Sans snapped his head up before Blue reached him, stopping the Swap monster in his tracks with the sight of the tears that were streaming down it. The Fell skeleton quickly scrambled into a more upright position, choking on what must have been a cry of pain, then bared his teeth, the tears making no move to stop or slow. “ _Fuck off_!” he hissed in a voice stuck somewhere between a sob and a shout, the sound of the words cut off with a sharp crackle of magic.

 

Blue reached out a hand, Soul lurching in his chest. “No-! wait-!” But the red-eyed Sans was gone, the teleport having gone through successfully and leaving him standing incredibly alone in the dark shadow of the building he was now tucked behind.

 

Blue didn’t know what to do, feeling tears prick the corners of his own eyesockets when he saw the little puddle of magic and marrow that had accumulated on the ground where Red-Eyed Sans had been standing.

 

Would he break a newly reinforced law for somebody he didn’t know a single thing about?

 

Yes. He had to.


	10. Chapter 10

_Skeletons don’t have lungs, but Sans imagined that if they did, they would be burning enough to match the agony that was coursing through his body. He hadn’t even run that far, but once he burst out of those doors and dove into the first secluded space his eyes found, it felt like his magic was bubbling within his bones. He gasped for air, clawing at the neck of the shirt he had been forced to wear with such ferocity that the fabric tore beneath the natural sharpness of his fingertips._

 

_He whined lowly, sliding down to the ground and bringing his knees up to his chest in an attempt to hold himself together in a physical sense. He was dead. Dead, dead dead. His brother was there now, yanking him up by one of his upper arms and kept on lifting even after his feet had left the ground, bringing their eyes level._

 

 _Sans didn’t hear the words his brother was saying to him, but he knew what they were probably conveying._ ** _Worthless_** _,_ **_idiot_** _,_ **_disgusting_** _,_ **_weak_** _,_ **_pathetic_** _,_ **_all your fault_** _,_ **_better off with you gone_** _._

 

 _Though the pain caused the tears that had gathered to spill over, Sans didn’t react when his brother’s free hand formed a fist and came down hard on his ribcage with enough force for the bones to audibly groan in protest. He was hit once more, then twice more, each one a more ruthless blow than the last, but the bones managed to keep from cracking. Sans couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t scream, couldn’t cry, couldn’t_ **_do this_** _-_

 

_His brother dropped him like the discardable piece of garbage he was, and Sans would have gladly surrendered to gravity and gone crashing all the way down, maybe hit his head and crumble to dust if he got lucky, but his brother had other plans. He was caught again by the wrist, and yanked back to his feet, which were somehow still supporting him. Papyrus trailed his hand up Sans’ forearm, gently and almost lovingly, but any illusion of that vanished when his brother tightened his grip on his radius and flicked his wrist._

 

_Sans screamed. He screamed as the sleeve of his jacket was ripped open when his brother yanked his hand away, screamed as he fell backwards, screamed as his back hit the wall, screamed as his brother gave him a last, steely look, and walked away. It wasn’t until that first breath had left him without the power to scream any longer that he was able to register the sickening crack that had sounded from where his brother’s hand had been, loud and wrong and just as nauseating as him-_

 

 _His vision was so blurred with tears and his mind was so overtaken with pain that the only thing he was able to tell about the injury was that it was oozing marrow and gushing liquid magic and that it hurt. It hurt. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt_ **_so bad_** _-_

 

 _He didn’t know that voice. The panic that flooded his body was dull and almost comforting in its familiarity, but he still forced himself away from the wall and tried to look as menacing as he could at the figure before him that seemed to be dressed in blue. He slurred out a few words that were hopefully intimidating or in some way convincing the stranger to stay the_ **_fuck_ ** _away from him, then gathered whatever magic his ruined body was left with and imagined the place he desired._

 

_Underswap’s private portal in Snowdin Forest was the closest he could get to where he wanted, which was out of his own consciousness, so he clumsily conjured the image of Underfell in his mind once he got there and fell straight into the portal as soon as the teleport left him before it. The only thing that allowed him movement was his own primal urge to get into a protected area, so by the time he had reached his house and somehow stumbled through it and into his room, he fell into his bed and abandoned himself to rot there without a moment’s hesitation._

\---

Sans didn’t wake to knocking, but the delightful sensation that his arm was having a nice rest in a meat grinder. He hissed, and shifted, but quickly regretted it when he was given a painful reminder of just how hard his brother had hit him on his ribs as well.

 

He honestly wished he would have died. He should have bled out, and perhaps he had decided to leave his wounds untended both because he was teetering on the edge of consciousness and because he wanted them to be fatal.

 

Shocking. He had failed again. Sans definitely wanted to die, but he would honestly rather not have it be done by way of having the shit beat out of him, so he inched his way out of bed, swearing under his breath every second along the way, and found himself standing, though every bone in his body was screaming its protests. A quick glance at his bed revealed it to be marginally redder than it had been earlier. Ah well.

 

He limped to his bathroom, flicked the light on with his undamaged arm, then shrugged the jacket he hated off of his shoulders, and _screamed_. The fabric had barely brushed along the bones, but it was agonizing. Fighting tears, he lifted up the one of his arms that he wished he could cut off and stared at it hatefully. There was a jagged crack in his radius, completely caked with dried magic and marrow and looking just as shitty as it felt. The bone was still connected to itself properly, so the break must not have gone all the way through, but he doubted it would even make a difference to how much he resented it.

 

Sans extended one clawed fingertip to the line of dried marrow, and tapped it with the same gentleness he imagined he might someone he loved, then quickly discovered that he shouldn’t be touching anyone anytime soon, because it _hurt_. It hurt way more than it had any business doing. Sans swiftly decided that he shouldn’t try to clean the thing because fuck that, so instead only fumbled around in the medicine cabinet until he found some bandages and grit his teeth hard enough to hurt in an attempt to block out the other and much more prominent pain that his arm was making sure not to let him forget about. When he was done, he took a deep breath and allowed himself the time it took to calm down. And it worked, but only for about five seconds before his knees were giving out and his body was trembling with the force of its sobs.

 

No. Nononono. What in the fuck had he done? Now able to recall what had happened with more clarity, Sans could remember that his brother was screaming at him about how they had been denied access to Underswap, all because of how royally he had fucked up. Then, while he was sobbing and whimpering like the disgusting, weak and worthless runt that he was, someone who looked a whole hell of a lot like him had tried to help him. Fun. Of all the people from Underswap to see him like that, it had to be _Sans_.

 

He kept on crying, and it didn’t strike him until much later when he was reduced to a trembling heap on the floor that he was being really fucking loud and his brother hadn’t kicked his door in. Sans managed, with a lot of pain and a lot of slowness, to get to his feet, and walked out of his bathroom. He was met first with his confusion, sniffling and wiping his watering eyes as he stared in disbelief at the light trickling through the ratty curtains that covered his window. Papyrus had let him sleep in? Was he sorry?

 

No. He was probably just so disgusted with him that he decided waking him wouldn’t have been worth looking at him. His arm was practically numb at this point, and Papyrus surely still expected him to work his job, so Sans, with one final, shuddering breath, swallowed down the last of his sobs and suffered through the process of dressing in his normal clothes before leaving the house and all of his tears within it.


	11. Chapter 11

Blue had a plan. Admittedly, it wasn’t a very good plan, but it was a plan nonetheless. Foolish, reckless, flat out moronic? Sure. But he knew that he had to, even though he hated what he would have to do to carry through with what he had decided must be done. First, as had become uncomfortably normal lately, he lied to his brother and claimed that he was heading to visit the Swapfell bros again because Alphys had given him a day off, hating every one of the untrue words. After that, he grabbed the bag he had already packed full of medical supplies because he had a feeling that the red-eyed Sans hadn’t gotten off easy with his injuries.

 

Blue’s magic churned with a small bit of nausea for a second as he recalled the way he suspected Red-Eyed Sans had been hurt, but quickly shook it off with a short, shallow breath before heading out the door. Blue was jittery, so he tried to rid himself of the feeling by speeding up to a jog rather than a walk. Upon reaching the portal, he leaned against one of the trees that lined the clearing and took a few deep breaths, reassuring himself that this was the right thing to do.

 

Phase two of the plan, blatantly and simultaneously break the laws of two universes. Easy. Blue took a breath, used all he knew about Underfell to imagine the place, and stepped through.

 

The difference was immediate. It was like Swapfell, just… with a lot more of the _fell_ mixed in. It felt much colder, sending a shiver through Blue’s body, and the tree bark was black and gnarled, the branches reaching up into the sky like hands desperately groping for an escape from the twisted reality that had entrapped them. The bright cyan leather that made up Blue’s boots looked incredibly strange against the snow, which appeared almost gray and lacked the shimmer that he was used to.

 

Blue took a breath, and stopped to think. First off, he had to stay out of sight. From everyone and _especially_ from Fell Papyrus, and then only reveal himself when he somehow got Red-Eyed Sans alone? Definitely not a good plan. Blue considered turning back for a moment, but the image of his alternate’s face, in so much pain and with tears streaming down it… he couldn’t leave. He couldn’t.

 

Where would Red-Eyed Sans be? It was a work day, so perhaps at his post - which would be where Stretch’s was in Underswap - but he was injured, after all. If not there… perhaps at home, or the Grillby’s that stood where Muffet’s was in his universe? Blue really should have thought this out. But, he had already convinced himself to stay, so he concluded that he would check all of those places to the best of his ability and perhaps more if none of them checked out, starting with the sentry station.

 

It was actually a very short walk away from the portal, but with the added element of attempting to be stealthy, it took longer than it should have. When the sentry station came into view, Blue stopped in his tracks and actually held his breath when he saw a figure hunched over at the post, buried in a heavy black jacket. Though the monster's head was practically buried in all of the fur that lined the jacket’s hood, Blue could see that it was a skull and considering that Fell Papyrus probably wouldn’t be at Red-Eyed Sans’ station, he knew who it was.

 

One final breath and Blue stepped from the woods, glancing around to make sure there was nobody else there to see him, then took a hesitant step towards the other Sans. “Hello?” he called softly.

 

Red-Eyed Sans’ head snapped up and his brilliant crimson eyelights shrunk to tiny pinpricks. Neither of them said anything for a moment, but Red-Eyed Sans was soon scrambling to his feet, though Blue certainly didn’t miss the way he winced and instinctively favored one of his arms. Red-Eyed Sans curled one side of his mouth up in a sneer, looking at Blue with disdain even though his eyes told a very different story. He was afraid. “What in the fuck are you doing here?” Red-Eyed Sans growled lowly.

 

Blue took a few more steps towards Red-Eyed Sans, seeing when the other skeleton shifted uncomfortably at the action. “Hey, Fell Sans? I’m you from Underswap, and I was the one who saw you, so-”

 

“I know,” Red-Eyed Sans snapped, eyelights flicking up and down Blue’s body as if he was sizing him up for a fight. “You didn’t answer my question, fuckwad. What’re you doing here? You’ll only end up a pile of pretty blue dust, so I suggest you prance on back to your own candyland universe and leave me the hell alone.”

 

Blue ignored the insults, the look in the other monster’s eyes telling him all he needed to know. “I came here to help you, Fell Sans.” He slipped the backpack he was carrying off of his shoulders. “I brought some supplies for your arm, a-and I just wanted to make sure that…” he swallowed, “I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

 

Red-Eyed Sans snorted. “Oh yeah, I’m doing absolutely _fantastic_ , thanks for asking.” He shifted his weight. “Truth is, the best way you can help me is by taking my earlier advice and fucking off.” He held up his undamaged arm. “Later.”

 

An aura of crimson surrounded the Fell skeleton, but it flickered after a few moments and then faded into nothing, leaving Red-Eyed Sans lurching to the side and leaning heavily on his post, breath coming out in wheezing gasps. Blue had seen it enough times with his own brother to recognize the failed teleport, and in his alarm, he scurried over to his alternate, closing the gap between them and placing a hand on the red-eyed Sans’ shoulder.

 

Before he could even open his mouth to say a single word, Red-Eyed Sans whirled on him, throwing his hand off and striking out with an arm. “ _Don’t fucking touch m_ -!”

 

The words were cut off and Red-Eyed Sans crumpled over, red tinged tears pricking in the corners of his sockets and his mouth opening in a silent scream as he barely managed to keep himself from falling completely due to his other arm still slung over the desk. Turns out it’s not a good idea to violently swing at someone with your badly injured arm.

 

“Stars!” Blue gasped, reaching to help the Fell monster up but quickly thinking better of it given Red-Eyed Sans’ previous reaction to touch.

 

Red-Eyed Sans looked at him, and in the glimmering depths of his pained eyelights, Blue thought he saw a plea, but it only lasted a second before the skeleton’s expression hardened. “I- I’m-” he hissed, struggling slowly to his feet and panting once he made it, face flushed crimson with his magic.

 

Blue looked down, swallowing. “Please… let me help you.”

 

Red-Eyed Sans was silent for a long time, just standing there, painfully quiet, but he eventually whispered, “Fine.”

 

Blue looked back up, hope reignited. “Really? O-Okay, um, you sit down, and I’ll- is it okay if I sit on top of your post?”

 

“I don’t give two shits what you do,” Red-Eyed Sans mumbled.

 

“A-Alright,” Blue stammered, not sure what to do with himself now that he had been admitted to help his alternate.

 

He quickly hopped atop Red-Eyed Sans’ post, sitting cross-legged and watching as the other monster sat down in the chair before him with a grimace. “Okay,” Blue said with a breath, “Can I see your arm?”

 

Red-Eyed Sans didn’t acknowledge him at all, but slowly lifted his injured arm and then placed it in Blue’s lap. His Soul stuttered, and he hoped he wouldn’t hurt the other Sans as he pulled off his gloves and set them aside. Red-eyed Sans flinched when Blue placed a few of his fingertips into his palm, noticing how warm the bones were. “D-Do you have a fever?” Blue asked quietly, alarm rising in his Soul. It couldn’t have gotten infected that badly already, right..?

 

Red-Eyed Sans glanced at him briefly, then looked down again. “Uh… no? I don’t think so. M’just a warm person, I guess.”

 

“Oh,” Blue sighed, placing his hand fully against Red-Eyed Sans’ to feel the heat better. “Yeah, you are. Bet it’s pretty hard for you to get cold, huh?” He giggled.

 

“How is that funny?” Red-Eyed Sans grunted.

 

“I uh… I don’t know,” Blue murmured. “I’m just trying to lighten the mood a bit.”

 

“Well stop,” Red-Eyed Sans grumbled.

 

“Er, okay…” Blue moved his hand down and slipped his fingers under Red-Eyed Sans’ sleeve to the first knuckle. “Can I roll your sleeve up?”

 

Alarm flashed in Red-Eyed Sans’ eyelights, and Blue’s first instinct was to apologize, but he was met with a mumbled go-ahead a moment later. Blue gently pulled the sleeve of the jacket back only to find the sleeve of the red sweater the Fell monster was also wearing underneath it, but still proceeded. He went as slowly as possible, and when the fabric passed over the spot where he estimated the injury to be, Red-Eyed Sans stiffened, but otherwise didn’t react. “Is this okay?” Blue asked, returning back to the other’s wrist to start on the second layer of clothing.

 

“...Whatever.”

 

Blue gently gripped onto the sleeve and began to push it back, and though he tried not to react, his eyes still widened when he caught sight of the bones of the Fell monster’s forearm. It was littered with scars, so many that it looked like a deliberate pattern. He flicked through the ways his alternate could have gotten them in his head, each of them unpleasant in nature. The thoughts beat it once he revealed the wound and withdrew his hands.

 

Red-Eyed Sans’s radius was wrapped, but the bandages which he assumed were once white were now soaked through with red. Blue swallowed and looked up at the other skeleton. “I’ll have to take these off.”

 

“...No shit.”

 

Blue sighed lightly, but didn’t let the mediocre replies bother him- he certainly wouldn’t be at his best in Red-Eyed Sans’ position either. He looked at the bandages, then saw the end point and picked at it as softly as he could, managing to hook it under his fingertip and then pinch it. He gave it a tiny tug, and it came loose, thankfully only eliciting a small grunt from the other Sans. Blue unwound it excruciatingly slowly, letting out he breath he wasn’t aware he had been holding once he was on the last loop.

 

He gasped when he pulled it away. There was a jagged break in Red-Eyed Sans’ radius, but the bone was thankfully still intact. It was caked with dark, dried marrow, though some of the skeleton’s crimson magic was still dribbling from the wound despite the barrier. The area around the break was bruised and inflamed, but Blue couldn’t see any obvious signs of infection, seeing as the inflammation could be explained away with simple irritation.

 

Red-Eyed Sans shifted uncomfortably. “...So? Ya gonna say something or do your healy magic shit?”

 

Blue smiled slightly. “Yes, sorry. And I don’t have healing magic,” he said with a small chuckle. “I’d rather not waste a dozen years of my life going to school for that, thanks.”

 

Blue dug through his bag and came away with a small thermos in which he had put warm water, then screwed it open and dug out a q-tip. “I’m going to try to get the dried marrow away, okay? Let me know if it hurts too much.”

 

“Sure, whatever,” Red-Eyed Sans sighed.

 

Blue dipped the q-tip into the water, then withdrew it and held it over the wound, simply letting a drop of water fall onto the dried marrow in the hopes to soften it. He added a few more drops, and began to see a few crumbs of the marrow wash away with the runoff.

 

“So…” he started slowly, “My name’s Blue. Rus told me you and your brother don’t have nicknames?”

 

Red-Eyed Sans grunted. “Nah. Pretty sure everyone just calls me shithead er something around here.”

 

Blue frowned. “Well, I don’t think that one quite suits you. Can we think of a new one?”

 

Red-Eyed Sans rolled his eyes. “I don’t give a fuck.”

 

Blue put more water on the marrow, happy to see a bigger chunk fall off. “How about Red?”

 

Red-Eyed Sans only flicked his eyelights towards the Swap skeleton for a brief second in acknowledgement. “I said I didn’t give a fuck, didn’t I?”

 

Blue nodded, breathing out in amusement. “You did.” He smiled. “So now we’re Red and Blue! We match!”

 

Red glanced at him again, looking displeased with this notion, but only sighed and turned away again after a second. “Kay, whatever.”

 

One more drop of water and a chunk of the marrow big enough to reveal bone washed away, and Blue smiled. “Okay, we’re making good progress. Is it okay if I try to wipe the rest off, Red? It might hurt a bit.”

 

The skeleton that was apparently being called that now grunted. “Sure.”

 

Blue bit the inside of his cheek and went in again with the q-tip, gently nudging against the remaining portion of marrow. It popped off in one piece, and Red hissed, but Blue couldn’t help but feel accomplished. “Nice! You’re doing so well Red, just a bit more and we can bandage it again.”

 

Red scowled. “What the fuck? I’m not a toddler, don’t encourage me like I’m in tears over here screaming for my parents.”

 

Blue frowned, not realizing what he had said could have been taken that way. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” He trailed off, then took a breath and started the conversation anew. “Um… what’s your favorite color?” Good one. Yep. The _best_ question, hands down.

 

Red didn’t answer for a long time as Blue dug through his bag again, and he thought he was being ignored until he retrieved what he needed and looked back to find the Fell skeleton’s face scrunched up in concentration. “I uh… I don’t know,” Red finally said. “I don’t really have one?”

 

Blue surely wasn’t expecting a lack of an answer to such an overused question, but didn’t dwell on it. “Oh. Well, that’s okay. Mine’s blue,” he added with a chuckle. “It’s why I picked my nickname all those years ago.”

 

He popped open a bottle of disinfectant and dribbled a bit onto a cotton ball. “Oh! Speaking of, how old are you?”

 

“...An age.”

 

Blue raised a browbone. “Um, alright. Good to know. I’m 17, and my brother’s 22, but I swear we were born in the wrong order. He acts like a babybones all the time and-” He cut himself off, realizing he could be overwhelming his clearly shy counterpart. “Um… I have to touch the wound now, is that okay?”

 

“Sure, fuck it, I like to live life on the edge,” Red said with exactly zero enthusiasm in his voice.

 

Bracing himself, Blue gently lowered the cotton ball and pressed it as lightly as he could manage against the wound. Red let out his next breath a bit sharper than the last, but with no further reaction, Blue began to dab at the crack in his counterpart’s bone. Red hissed, but Blue gritted his teeth and kept going, hating the knowledge that he was hurting another monster. When he was done, he pulled back with a sigh of relief, revealing the break was now cleaned of the last crumbs of the marrow and slick with the disinfectant. “Okay, I don’t think it’s infected, but I’d still like to put some ointment on it, alright?”

 

Red’s voice was strained when he spoke. “Sure, alright, don’t give a fuck and such.”

 

Blue dug it from his bag and screwed the cap off, then squeezed some out onto another q-tip and slowly lowered it to the break in the other monster’s bone. He didn’t actually have to apply any pressure this time, just wipe the medicine off onto Red’s bones, so the Fell skeleton didn’t react much this time, much to Blue’s relief. He pulled back after that with a long breath. “Alright, now we can bandage it.

 

Red didn’t respond, so Blue went about wrapping the skeleton’s radius with gauze and then bandages before grabbing one final thing from his bag. “Alright, this might hurt, but I think we should put a splint on it just in case.”

 

Another grunt in response. “Knock yourself out.”

 

Blue allowed himself another long breath before he shrunk the splint to its smallest setting and gingerly slipped it in between Red’s radius and ulna. “Ready?”

 

“Ugh.”

 

Blue took that to be a yes, so he expanded the splint until it was pressing against both of the bones in Red’s lower arm, keeping it steady.

 

The sound Red made was nothing other than a whimper, small and airy and a stark contrast to the gruffness that his voice possessed. “Stars! I-I’m sorry-”

 

“What the fuck ever-” Red panted, closing his eyes as his face warmed with embarrassment. “Just hurry the hell up and finish it.”

 

Blue was hesitant, but went as fast as he could while still retaining his gentleness as he fastened the straps around Red’s radius and ulna to hold the splint in place. “O-Okay,” Blue said shakily, wincing at the way his alternate’s breath was strained from the pain, “All done.”

 

Red just sat there, still and silent for a while, but eventually opened his eyes and lifted his arm from Blue’s lap with a grimace, holding it before his face and examining it. “Uh… thanks, I guess.” He slowly rolled the sleeve of his sweater and then jacket back over the newly dressed wound, then stood so quickly that Blue gave a little yelp of surprise. “But you need to leave.”

 

“W-Wha-”

 

“Listen,” Red growled, stuffing the hand of his undamaged arm into one of his jacket pockets, “You didn’t have to do all that shit, but you did, so whatever. But in case you’ve forgotten, half the monsters here would dust you on sight and it’s kinda illegal for you to be here in the first place, so I don’t want to have to deal with that if anyone sees me with you.” He gestured towards the woods with his head. “Go.”

 

Blue slid from the desk and walked up to the other skeleton. Red was taller than him by about half a head, which wasn’t much compared to what he was used to standing next to his brother. “I… I know I’m not supposed to be here… but I just really wanted to help and-”

 

“I don’t give a shit why you showed up, Blue. You still gotta leave.”

 

Blue sighed, his shoulders sagging. “I know, you’re right.” He looked up hopefully, digging around in his pocket for his phone. “Can I get your number? We could talk sometime-”

 

“I’d rather shove my own dick down my throat until I dust from lack of air,” Red snapped.

 

“Uh…” Blue grabbed his backpack again, slinging it over a shoulder and pulling his gloves back on. “Okay… um… are you sure? We don’t even have to talk that often, I’d just like to get an update about how your arm is doing-”

 

“No.”

 

There was such finality in the words that Blue flinched, and backed up a few steps. “A-Alright… I guess…” He turned around, casting a regretful glance over his shoulder. “Goodbye. It was nice meeting you, Red.”

 

There was no response as he disappeared into the woods.


	12. Chapter 12

Red shivered despite the relative warmth of the day, dragging his feet through the snow until he reached a large stone door, the purple color faded and stained. He turned around and pressed his back to it, then slid down until he was settled cross-legged on the ground in the little place he had cleared of snow long ago. Nothing like an assful of snow to really make an evening. Red sighed, shoving his uninjured arm deep down into one of his jacket pockets and resting the other one in his lap, watching as his breath billowed in the crispness of the Snowdin air.

 

He hadn’t done anything to his arm ever since that other Sans - Blue, apparently - had bandaged it, both because he was honestly scared to in case he somehow injured himself further and because he didn’t want to… disregard the bandages. Well, not the bandages, exactly, but the reason they were there. While having that Blue fucker show up in his universe had been nowhere near preferable, the guy was still way nicer to him than anyone else had been in a decade, Red couldn’t deny that. The bandages were like a souvenir of that, and Red felt like the idiot of the century for placing any value in them. They were going in the trash eventually, and he would never see Blue again, thankfully.

 

He perked up when the sound of muffled footsteps from behind the door grew louder as they approached, and the shuffling sounds after that as the person presumably sat down. Red waited a bit, seeing if they would talk first, but they didn’t, so he took a breath and started. “Can’t think of somethin to say, huh? S’no problem, and it would probably be better not to think, in your case. Bad things happen when you do that.”

 

The person on the other side of the door snorted. “Well, I guess you’re right. For example, it’s going to destroy your reputation when I finish thinking about the ratio of intelligent things you’ve ever said to the number of dicks you’ve sucked and then tell everyone. By the way, you’ve never said anything intelligent.”

 

Red held back his laughter. “Sorry, didn’t hear you. I’m too busy building an idiot. Can I use you as the blueprint?”

 

The other person exhaled sharply in what Red hoped was something along the lines of a huff of amusement. “No, but you can use me as a shoulder to lean on when you look in the mirror. Let me tell you, if you don’t pass out, your eyesight is just as fucked as the rest of your face.”

 

Red wasn’t exactly sure how this whole situation had come about, honestly. He was walking angrily through Snowdin Forest one day, loudly throwing random insults into the air at nobody in particular, but someone had responded with a, _“Who you callin a dickhole, pissbreath?”_ when he was walking by the door to the Ruins. He had nearly screamed, and frantically glanced around himself, only to see nobody in the forest but him.

 

He soon figured out that the reason for this was because the mystery person was speaking from behind the door. The giant door that can only be opened from the inside. _What the fuck_ was his first thought, but soon Red was turning to the door with a sneer on his face and growling out a reply. _“Why you of course, dickhole.”_

 

_“Well, pissbreath, I’m happy to report that you can go shove a chainsaw up your ass and then turn it on to a speed just about as fast as you are every time you manage to find someone with low enough standards to fuck you.”_

 

Red would have been offended, but the insult was so fucking _golden_ that he had just burst out laughing instead. Dickhole started laughing soon after that, and they continued insulting each other through the door until it began to grow dark outside. Of course he got a few impressive bruises later that day from Papyrus for skipping out on work, but it was worth it. He tried to only come to the door when he didn’t have any responsibilities after that first time, but he sometimes decided a beating would be worth sharing his new and most insulting ideas.

 

He would probably be friends with the door person if Dickhole wasn’t such a… _dickhole_. Everything they said was filled with so much venom that he could only wonder what their life had done to them to get them so angry. Sure, Red hated a lot of things and got angry at a lot of things, but even he could still laugh at something stupid or manage a smile once in a while. Dickhole could do nothing but roast him with the skills of a god or rant and rave about how much they hated everything. Red wasn’t a very good listener, and it just pissed him off to listen to someone being so pissed off, so his relationship with Dickhole wasn’t the best.

 

Nevertheless, that had failed to stop him from returning to the door time after time, including today. “-And I’d call you a cunt, but you lack both the depth and warmth,” Red finished, smiling in triumph when Dickhole finally broke out into genuine laughter.

 

“Alright Pissbreath,” the door person coughed out, “I don’t know how to respond to that, but I figure I should let you know that if you were on fire and I had spoiled milk in my mouth, I wouldn’t spit it out in the fear that it might extinguish you.”

 

Red chuckled weakly, but he could sense that the energy of the conversation was fading, and the sound died out with a little groan in protest at nothing in particular. His broken arm handed him a small flare of pain, and Red flinched, then closed his eyes tight as his mind returned to how he had been injured in the first place. Two nights had passed since Blue had left, which also marked the third since he had seen his brother. Papyrus was so disgusted with him that he was living in his office in the king’s castle? There was no bed there, no kitchen, nothing but a chair, a desk, and various other furnishings that would be equally uncomfortable to sleep on. A pain swelled in Red’s throat and to his horror, he found himself fighting back tears. His brother _hated_ him. Hated him, hated him, hated him, and Red did as well. His hate for himself was stronger than his hate for anything else.

 

“...Dickhole..?” he whispered, cringing at the weakness of his voice.

 

“What is it, Pissbreath?” the door person sighed.

 

Red swallowed. “D-Did you know that… Asgore tried to gain access to Underswap a few days ago..?”

 

“Is that so?” Dickhole spat, such venom in the words that Red actually felt a shameful little flicker of fear in his Soul. What did the door person hate so much about Underswap? Or perhaps it was Asgore that they hated..?

 

“Y… Yeah…” Red whispered. “Um… Swap Toriel said… n-no… and it’s… it’s _my_ fault-” his voice broke and the tears spilled over, rushing down over his burning cheeks and landing heavily on his sweater.

 

Red drew in a single, shuddering breath, but when he exhaled, all of his control crumbled away and it came out as a sob, rattling his entire body and earning a painful stab of protest from his arm. Once that came out, there was no stopping the rest of them. He sat there, crying his ugly tears and choking on his own disgusting sobs, but quieted when another sound greeted him. Footsteps, first loud and then quiet and then silent, but no less muffled than they had ever been in the past. They had left.

 

Just like everyone else.


	13. Chapter 13

“...But I thought it was your turn to decide what to cook?”

 

Rus narrowed his eyes. “No, it was definitely yours.”

 

Blue was silent for a moment, then sighed in defeat. “Then I suppose that means we have no ingredients and can’t make dinner?”

 

Papyrus from Underlust, Pink, popped his head into the kitchen. “I… I’m sure you do? This is your house, Rus, and unless my eyes are betraying me, I believe that’s a fridge over there.” He pointed to an object that was indeed a fridge with a large, slender hand.

 

Rus frowned. “But… you and Lust are our guests, Pink. We should be able to make you something beyond what can be thrown together from random things we fished from the fridge.”

 

“Yeah, bro!” Comic called from what Blue could only guess to be the couch. “Whatever you n’ Blue make’ll be great.”

 

“Yeah, it can’t be too hard,” Lust added, then laughed at his own very, _very_ overused joke, Comic soon to join him while the other three skeletons only sighed, shoulders sagging.

 

Once Rus had managed to stop dying inside, he straightened his posture and took a breath. “I suppose so. You ready, Blue?”

 

Blue smiled and flung his friend’s fridge open. “I am. Challenge accepted, let’s go.”

 

Upon scouring the contents of the fridge, they took advantage of the inconsistency and gathered enough ingredients that would be nice together in a stir-fry. Pink wandered into the kitchen and watched them cook, excitement glittering in his magenta eyelights. “I knew you two could do it!”

 

Blue and Rus thanked him, then got back to work. It had turned into something of a tradition for the two of them to get together at either of their houses and cook dinner for the resident brother and often the bros from another universe as well. They tried to do it every few weeks, and the last time, it had been at Blue’s house with the Horrortale bros, Axe and Crooks. If Blue remembered correctly, the two of them ate at least four servings of the teriyaki Rus had decided on making. Oh. Yep, it was Blue’s turn. Oops. Sometimes the order did get messed up though, so it’s not like it was as simple as each of them cooking in their own houses.

 

Once they were done, they dug out five plates, filled them, then set them before everyone at the table and started in. Monster food is interesting. It depends of the type of monster eating it of course, but for the skeletons, they still chewed and swallowed, but the food didn’t go anywhere beyond their throats before absorbing, even if they had their bodies formed, like Pink. Blue had no idea how the guy had enough energy to constantly have his body summoned, but he certainly respected it. Monster food was a relatively recent invention, only being made a reality after the resources in the Underground had gotten dangerously low.

 

It was the work of Gaster, actually, that laced all of the Underground’s food with magic that reacted to each monster’s to help it absorb. How it worked was quite confusing, but from what Blue could gather, the magic was fed into the various bodies of water in the Underground, which eventually led to all of the water being treated, even the rain and snow. That in turn transferred the magic to the plants and then the animals that ate them, consequently the creatures that preyed upon the herbivorous animals, and finally the monsters. The secondary function of the magic also sped up the process at which the plants and animals reproduced and matured, which was able to keep the food economy sustainable. But thanks to Gaster's seemingly endless pool of knowledge and inventive skills, it didn't have this effect on monsters. Blue felt a flicker of sadness in his Soul at the memories of his father, but Undyne was a wonderful scientist, even if they weren’t as close as he had been with Gaster.

 

The only way for them to access food that didn’t absorb or ‘human food’ at this point was from Horror universes where the system had broken down and without anyone to re-invent it, left the entire population fighting against starvation. The novelty of human food and drinks is interesting, so the Horror universes were able to trade some of theirs for money which they would use to eat in other universes if they were specifically desperate. Axe and Crooks were actually in a better position than most in their universe because of their situation of knowing so many people from other universes, but Blue honestly wished he could feed their entire Underground, no matter how unrealistic that was.

 

The Lust bros left a few hours after they had finished dinner, and Comic retired to his room after that, looking like he hadn’t slept in days even though he had been napping when Blue got there. Rus sighed and sat down on the couch, shifting before he spoke. “So, Underfell got denied? Honestly that’s probably for the best, considering how Fell Paps isn’t the nicest or… safest person.”

 

Blue flinched in being reminded of what he had been trying so hard to forget. He didn’t regret going to help Red for a single second, even though it was beyond illegal and left him crying into his pillow that night. He really wanted to help, he really did, and he could tell that Red wasn’t that bad a person, seeing as he didn’t wind up dead, but there were so many things in his way.

 

“Um… yeah…” Blue mumbled, wringing his hands together. “So… Fell Sans… I uh, call him Red now… he uh… was there, and kinda… was having an anxiety attack during the whole meeting.”

 

Rus’ eyelights glazed over with sadness. “Really?” He sighed. “I know he has a hard time. I wish he would come to Undertale more often, because me and Comic could be his friends, but he only comes here when he has to and wants nothing to do with either of us in those times.”

 

Blue swallowed. “Um… a-after the meeting… I found him outside of the castle… with a broken arm… and I think…” He trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence.

 

“His brother did it,” Rus whispered, face scrunched up in a mixture of sorrow and disgust.

 

“Yeah…”

 

They were silent for a while, but the discomfort of the situation grew and grew until Blue blurted out the rest of his story, consequences be damned. He doubted that Rus would go and turn him in to the authorities or anything - they were best friends, after all -  but it still felt like a confession.

 

Rus didn’t seem upset by this, only smiled sadly. “That was really nice of you, and it sounds like Red responded better to you than he ever did to me. He even let you touch him? From what I gather, he’d rather you tossed all of his belongings into the Core.”

 

Blue agreed with that last sentiment, but part of what Rus had said stuck with him up until the time when he was laying in bed. _It was nice of him_. Was it?

 

No. It wasn’t. Not yet.


	14. Chapter 14

This was unbearable. Hearing Alphys stutter on every goddamn sentence, watching as Undyne slowly lost her mind… Red was regretting his decision to spend his evening here. The one pro to the situation was that he was able to sit down this time, which was fantastic, even if it was on an examination table. He was trying his best not to think of how many monsters had dusted right under where his ass was sat now, but wasn’t doing all that well. Alphys wasn’t really known for taking in patients who she didn’t end up killing one way or another. It was for science, she said.

 

Red jumped when a hand of long, slender fingers passed rapidly across his vision. “You alive, Sans?” Undyne snorted. “Wasn’t this supposed to be some sort of social gathering or whatever? I didn’t risk my ass being spotted just to have you sit in the corner like a rock.”

 

“Uh… yeah… sorry…” Red wasn’t sure if he should be complimented or insulted by that one. Apparently his silence was a negative thing, but Undyne hadn’t really let him know in the kindest of ways. “So… what were you talking about..?” he asked lamely.

 

“Our plans to fist you with a hatchet in your sleep.”

 

Red choked on the air he had been attempting to breathe in. “ _What_ -?!”

 

“She’s n-not lying,” Alphys said with a little shrug. “We were t-talking about it to see if you were listening. Which you o-obviously weren’t, unless you actually d-do want to be fisted by any sharp metal objects and were d-deciding to enjoy listening in s-silence.”

 

Red sighed, rubbing at one of his eyesockets. “No, I’ll pass. But that does mean that you’re not actually planning on that… right?”

 

“Who knows?” Undyne said with a face so expressionless that it was in no way reassuring.

 

Red grumbled a remark quite far from kind under his breath, but didn’t press the issue. Even _that_ was too kinky for Alphys. ...He hoped. “So have you gotten on that fic about me yet?” he tried, the regret of opening that door up soon to follow the words.

 

“Not r-really,” Alphys replied. “Writing a solo fic about s-someone who makes me want to hurl isn’t really my idea of a good way t-to spend an afternoon.”

 

“Gee thanks,” Red snorted in response, though the insult was in no way surprising. “But I don’t remember you ever being stopped by the lack of canon relationships before.”

 

“But that’s t-the thing,” Alphys huffed, “You suck so bad that I can’t think of a g-good person in the entirety of the multiverse to p-pair you with.”

 

Red’s expression soured, even though he agreed wholeheartedly with the claim. “Well fuck you too, then.” The best comeback, truly.

 

The three of them slipped back into what could barely be considered conversation, and after a while, Red just gave up and messed around on his phone whilst pretending to listen to whatever the other two monsters were talking about. The device nearly went flying when someone burst into the room, but he was luckily able to save it. Upon seeing who it was, though, Red would have gladly sacrificed it to save himself. He was dead, so very dead.

 

Papyrus opened his mouth, probably with the intent to say something to him, but his gaze was captured by Undyne, who currently looked more horrified than Red had ever seen her. She glanced at Papyrus, then at Alphys, then at Red, and ran, out of the Lab and out of sight, leaving all of her things behind. Papyrus whipped his head around in the direction she had ran, clearly wishing to pursue and kill her in the most painful way he could think of, but hesitated. Red watched his brother’s sanguine eyelights burn with rage, then cloud over with confliction, and then normalize, intentions unclear. “Sans,” he finally snapped, turning his attention back to Red.

 

Red was silent for so long that his brother almost started to speak again, but managed to blurt out, “Yeah, B-Boss..?” just in time to save himself from more angry words. The victory didn’t last him long.

 

“I’ve been trying to find you for hours, you idiot! Didn’t you get any of my messages?” Papyrus snarled, taking several threatening steps towards him.

 

Red flinched visibly, glancing to the side to watch as Alphys fled into another part of the Lab, probably intending to lock herself up as far away from the wrath that was his brother as possible. “Uh… no???” Papyrus had been trying to contact him? And he hadn’t realize? Red gave another panicked little glance at his phone, opened his texts - of which there were few - and found that there were indeed several messages from his brother.

 

He swallowed. “Oh… uh… you know, since nobody texts me, I turned off the notifications for it so that all the fuckers trying to sell me stuff don’t bother me, heh…” It was true, but still an excuse by his brother’s standards.

 

The palm of Papyrus’ gloved hand landed hard on Red’s cheek, stinging enough to have his eyes prickling with the effort of holding back tears and sending a jolt down his spine that he knew he would feel later, but he managed to hold back his cry of pain, only grunting deep in his throat and coughing out his next breath from the impact. “Turn them on, then!” Papyrus hissed, glaring down at him scornfully. “Come on, we’re going home.”

 

Papyrus reached for his injured arm, but Red yanked it away before he could touch it, and expected to be hit for the effort, but no blow came. He opened one eye to find his brother looking at him again, looking hesitant. Papyrus shook his head after a bit, then reached for his other arm and yanked him to his feet. He was practically thrown down onto the couch once he had been dragged all the way back to their house in Snowdin, feet aching from the walk. If only his brother wasn’t too proud to use the ferry, he would be spared a lot of pain.

 

To Red’s surprise, Papyrus didn’t command him to do anything, only made him sit through another lecture about everything that was wrong with him and everything he could do to fix it. While the words were different, Red had memorized all the points he touched on, because he was evidently very bad at fixing his flaws. He predicted the end of the speech correctly, and his brother began to move away, but Red stopped him before he could leave the room, voice so meek it sent his cheeks burning with shame. “Boss..?”

 

“What?” Papyrus snorted, not even bothering to turn around and look at him.

 

“Why… why were you gone for so long?” Red asked, voice practically a whisper.

 

His brother turned around this time, crossing his arms and shaking his head. “Because I had a lot of things to attend to after you fucked everything up and completely ruined our chances of gaining from Underswap. Everything’s not always about you, Sans. Maybe take one fucking second out of your day to think about someone other than yourself for once.”

 

“R-Right, um-” His voice cracked, and a tear fell into his lap before he could stop it.

 

Papyrus slowly closed the distance between them again, grabbed his chin, and tilted his face upwards so that their eyes met. Red tried to hold back his tears, but a few more trickled out of his sockets, bones heavy from the humiliation of showing such weakness.

 

“Crying, huh?” Papyrus cooed, smiling softly at him. “Cute.” He jerked Red’s head down again, giving him a soft pat on the head to contrast against the rough action afterwards. “Keep your head down, Sans. Nobody wants to have to look at you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates on this are slow as all hell right now because finals are fast approaching, but I promise they'll speed up by a significant margin soon.


	15. Chapter 15

“So… you’re going to Outertale again? You secretly dating Star or something?” Stretch inquired from his position on the couch.

 

Blue slung his backpack over a shoulder. “Uh… no, I just really like space, you know that.” He cringed at the blatant lie, uneasiness churning in his Soul. Sure, he absolutely adored the stars and everything else the night sky contained, but he wouldn’t be seeing them today as he was leading his brother to believe.

 

Stretch snapped his fingers. “Aha! I got it. You’re not secretly dating Star, you’re secretly dating _Comet_.”

 

“That’d still be a no,” he replied, shifting uncomfortably.

 

“Okay, so it’s gotta be-”

 

“I’m not dating anyone, Papy! In secret or no.”

 

Stretch opened his mouth again, but Blue didn’t have time for this. “Sorry! Gotta go! I uh- promised Comet I’d be there by now! ...Platonically!”

 

He dashed out the front door and slammed it much harder than he had meant to, but didn’t stop to ponder it, just grit his teeth and kept up the pace, winding through the trees of Snowdin Forest until he reached the area he was aiming for. He imagined darkness and scars and gleaming crimson rather than stars, and stepped through the portal. Blue didn’t spend as much time admiring the scenery this time around, just made a beeline as quietly and carefully as he could towards where his brother’s station would be in his universe.

 

Once he reached the path and checked to make sure there were no figures in the area aside from the one hunched over at the post, he stepped out of the cover of the trees and approached the other monster. Red’s head snapped up with his first footstep, eyelights shrinking to tiny pinpricks, but they expanded after a second, recognition flashing in them for a brief second before being replaced by anger.

 

The Fell skeleton ungracefully scrambled to his feet just as Blue reached the station, the Swap skeleton's entire face one giant apology. “What the fuck? The hell are you doing here?!” Red hissed, looking down at him and ineffectively trying to cover up his discomfort.

 

Blue swallowed, then took a breath, slid his backpack from his shoulders, and set it on his alternate’s station. “I’m here to help.”

 

“I don’t need any fucking help!” the other skeleton spat, though the aggression ended there. Blue could see that he was curling in on himself, guarding his most vulnerable areas as if he expected to be attacked. Blue certainly had no plans to hurt him, quite the opposite, actually, and it made him sad that Red had grown up in a place that taught him to expect such violence from everyone.

 

Blue slowly turned to look at his counterpart, and made his eyelights as soft as he could, then slowly blinked, like you would to show trust and love to a cat. Red perked up at this, squinting and eventually saying, “A… cat..? You… think I’m a cat..?”

 

“No,” Blue murmured, unzipping his bag and beginning to pull out the various medical supplies he had brought with him. “I just want you to know that I won’t hurt you. I want to help, Red, and I’m sorry that I make you so uncomfortable, but that doesn’t matter when you’re injured, because you _do_ need help, whether you like it or not, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

 

Red didn’t seem to know how to respond, eyelights clouding over with an unidentifiable emotion as he shrunk even further into himself, neck completely disappearing into the collar of his sweater and the furry hood of his jacket. When he spoke, his voice was much softer. “But it’s dangerous here. Why would you want to risk getting dusted by some asshole maniac for a fucking idiot that you don’t know?”

 

Blue matched the low volume of his voice, sockets half lidded as he moistened a gauze pad. “Because it doesn’t matter who you are, you still deserve to be cared for after…” he hesitated, “A-After something bad happens. Plus,” he added quietly, “I’d _like_ to know you.”

 

Red was far more baffled this time, spluttering to such an exaggerated degree that little flecks of crimson tinted saliva went spraying from his mouth and flying downward to stain the snow. When he managed to form words again, all he said was a breathy, drawn out, “ _Why_?!”

 

“Because everyone deserves to be given a chance,” Blue replied. “And you’re not as bad as you seem to think you are, Red. You’ve done nothing aside from being cautious of me and protecting yourself behind a wall of aggression, which I can’t blame you or anyone else in a Fell universe for. So,” he said with a breath, turning towards Red and speaking more loudly. “Can I look at your arm, or not?”

 

Red stayed silent for a long time, eyes trained on the ground, but he eventually drug his feet in a series of what could barely be considered steps until he was able to fall back into his chair and set his injured arm out on the desk. “Do have a choice?” he mumbled, finally flicking his eyelights up to meet Blue’s, if only for a second.

 

“Yes, you do,” Blue assured him, but still climbed atop the desk, slipped his gloves off, and crossed his legs as he had done before. “It’s your body, so I can’t touch or look at it where you don’t want me to.”

 

Red sighed. “Want is a strong word, but I can think of worse things than having you feel my arm up. But hurry the fuck up, Blue.”

 

“You got it.” Blue pulled the other monster’s arm into his lap just as he had done last time, then rolled the sleeve of his jacket and sweater back, smiling to himself when Red didn’t flinch or seem to feel any pain from the action. “Oh!” he exclaimed upon seeing his alternate’s arm bare of clothing. “You took the splint out!”

 

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah,” Red mumbled. “I figured that once I was able to jack off without being in agonizing pain, I was good to just have bandages.”

 

Blue stopped what he was doing and looked up, browbones raised as high as he could force them to go and mouth stretched into a thin line. “Well… I uh… guess that’s good news… then…”

 

Red let out a short bark of humorless laughter. “I was kidding. You really think I’d share my masturbation habits with you?”

 

Blue sighed, allowing himself a smile and chuckling lightly. “I don’t know, but that’s a good point. This isn’t Lustfell.”

 

“Besides, I’m left-handed.”

 

Blue smiled again and shook his head. “I think that statement just ruined your efforts to protect your privacy.”

 

“Fuck.”

 

Blue giggled as he began to unravel the bandages that were still there, sighing in relief when he managed to toss them aside with little more than an uncomfortable shift from the other monster. He picked up the gauze that he had wet earlier, still warm from the water he had dribbled into it, and gently wiped at the thankfully small amount of dried marrow, though quite a bit of the liquid magic that leaked from less serious injuries was staining the bones of Red’s arm. He got the largest reaction from this, a pained grunt, but was hastily instructed to ‘ _get the fuck on with it_ ’ when he had stopped to see if Red was alright.

 

Once the wounds were clean, Blue examined them more closely and smiled at what he found. “You’re healing well! The bones are still cracked, obviously, but they’ve fused together enough so that no more marrow should be coming out. I’d say you’re safe without another splint.”

 

“Fantastic,” Red said, though his voice lacked any traces of enthusiasm.

 

Blue applied more ointment and took his time with the new set of bandages, then rolled Red’s sleeves back down to his wrist. “Done!”

 

Red slowly retracted his arm back to his body, balling the hand of it into a fist against his sternum. “Uh… cool…”

 

Blue waited to see if he would say anything else, but when no other words came, he took a breath and dug through his bag before pulling two containers out of it. “I brought us lunch!”

 

Red looked up, his posture straightening just a bit as his eyelights glittered with surprise. “Uh… you did..?”

 

“Yeah!” Blue opened one of the containers and held it out to Red. “Tacos, one of the first things I ever learned how to make.”

 

Red’s expression shifted between several different emotions before his eyelights flashed and he shot a glare at the Swap skeleton. “How do I know they aren’t poisoned?”

 

Blue raised a browbone. “Uh… well they’re not, and I guess you can tell because if my mission was to kill you, I could have done it a lot sooner.”

 

“ _But,_ ” Red hissed, sockets narrowing, “What if you get off on power and manipulation, so you like to gain people’s trust before killing them?”

 

Blue didn’t know what to say to that one. “Uh… well, um, that’s not the case…”

 

Red only sat back in his chair, looking like he trusted Blue less than ever, then blatantly looked at Blue’s lap and tilted his head as if he was evaluating something important. “Alright, no hard-ons in sight, and I would assume you’d be _pretty_ excited if your fantasy was just about to come to life.”

 

Blue _really_ didn’t know what to say to that one. “...Uhhhh…”

 

Red gasped and held up a finger, eyelights flashing. “But-! Maybe you’re impotent, so murder and powerplay _replaces_ arousal, and makes you forget your crippling insecurities about your malfunctioning magic!”

 

Blue gave up at that point, and didn’t say anything. Red only stared him down, but eventually deflated, sighing. “Okay, or maybe not. But I still don’t know if they’re poisoned or not,” he added with a huff.

 

Blue blinked a few times, doing his best to push the thoughts of what was most likely the strangest conversation he had ever had in his life aside, then opened the other container and picked up one of the tacos inside it. He made sure Red was watching before taking a large bite, chewing, swallowing, and opening his mouth to prove that it was down. “See, no poison!”

 

Red scoffed. “That doesn’t prove shit. Yours are in a completely separate container. You could have easily poisoned mine."

 

Blue sighed, setting his taco down and instead picking up one of the ones he had intended for Red to eat, then nibbled on one end of it. “No poison!”

 

“But what if the rest of the taco is poisoned?”

 

Blue sighed again, flipping the thing around in his hand and taking a small bite from the other end instead. “No poison here, either.”

 

“But what if you need to eat the entire thing to get a lethal dose?”

 

Blue set the taco down, palming at one of his eyesockets in exasperation. “Then… I guess I would be a terrible person who likes to dedicate a lot of their time to elaborately poisoning tacos.”

 

Red seemed to hesitate for a moment, but eventually let out a breath and sat up straight, picking up the taco. “I guess maybe my theory is a little out there. Besides,” he added, “You look like you’d be more into strangulation. Like to feel the life drain out of em’ n’ the dust running through your fingers.”

 

Blue’s jaw fell open, for that was most certainly incorrect, but he was distracted from his indignation when Red took an absolutely gargantuan bite of the taco, right over where he had bitten as well. “W-Weren’t you going to rip that bit away?” he asked.

 

Red shrugged through his mouthful, and mumbled something about not giving a fuck while he was in the midst of chewing. It only took him another two bites to finish the thing, and the chewing was minimal, to say the least. When he was done, he ran his crimson tongue over his sharp teeth, and gave a little nod. “It’s good. Better than my…” He trailed off, then swallowed, averting his eyes. “Um, better than any other tacos I’ve ever eaten.”

 

Blue smiled through his sadness at the hesitation in Red’s claim, then picked up the one of his tacos he had already started. “I’m glad!”

 

He had to work very hard to try to keep up, considering that Red had eaten his second taco no more than 30 seconds later and Blue had to choke down both of his in that span of time. He didn’t succeed, may have stabbed himself with a few pieces of shell he hadn’t chewed enough, and probably could have suffocated, but he managed to be done before it got _too_ awkward.

 

“Okay-” he croaked, stopping to cough before continuing as he rummaged through his bag. “Here’s some water…”

 

Red took it, and drank it extremely fast as Blue was expecting, but he had no problem keeping up this time, needing the soothing liquid very much after the endeavor he had just suffered through. Once he was done, he took a deep breath, put away the bottles, containers, and medical supplies, then smiled. “So. I have a question.”

 

“Uh, okay?” Red responded quizzically.

 

Blue had to think of something to ask the other skeleton on his feet, because he was actually just trying to make conversation before he was kicked out again. “Um… when’s your birthday?”

 

“Hmph. October 31st.”

 

Blue smiled. “Oh, cool! That’s apparently a holiday for the humans, my Undyne tells me.”

 

Red only grunted in response, but then looked up at him for a moment. “And uh… my age… that you asked for earlier… is uh… 23.”

 

Blue’s Soul fluttered at the knowledge that Red had not only remembered his insignificant little question, but had bothered to answer it. “Oh, okay. Um, thanks for telling me.” He offered a small smile. “My birthday is in a couple months, March 19th. So that makes me a Pisces.” He stopped to think for a moment. “And you’re a Scorpio!”

 

Red nodded. “Mhm. Having a spiky, poisonous ass doesn’t sound like much fun, though.”

 

Blue chuckled. “I guess not, but if we inherited the traits of our signs, my activities would be pretty limited, considering I’d have to live underwater.” Horoscopes had always interested Blue, probably because it had to do with the stars. He wondered if Red shared his passion of such things, but before he could ask, he was interrupted again and surprised by what was said.

 

“Also, favorite color. I thought about it… and I think mine's black.”

 

Blue’s cheekbones dusted over with a small bit of his cyan magic, and he smiled, again happy that Red cared enough to remember what he had said. “Well, you certainly wear a lot of it. Is there any particular reason you feel drawn to it?”

 

Red’s voice was small when he answered. “It’s what I see when I close my eyes.”

 

Blue opened his mouth to reply, but no words came. He closed it, swallowed, then opened it again, wringing his hands together. “I… I’m…”

 

He jumped when Red suddenly hopped from his seat, and he wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he thought he might have seen the wetness of tears on the rims of his sockets. Red turned to face him with a short breath, hands stuffed into his pockets. “Okay. Thank you for the food, and the medical care ‘r whatever, but you have to go now.”

 

Blue sighed, though he had expected no less. “Okay, I will.” He slipped his gloves back on and grabbed his bag, then turned and smiled at the other skeleton. “So, Red, I know it’s not exactly the smartest move of mine to come here, so I won’t anymore, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’d like to get to know you better.” He started to reach into his pocket, but was cut off.

 

“No.” Red was staring blankly at him, whatever emotion Blue had thought he caught just moments earlier nowhere to be seen. “I’m still not giving you my number. It’d just be a huge pain in both of our asses to try and be pals or whatever. My arm’s gonna be fine, you said it yourself, so there’s no reason for you to come back here or talk to me again. Ever.”

 

Now Blue felt like he was the one on the verge of tears. He couldn’t help but feel a little hurt, but it was also the thought of leaving Red to fend for himself that bothered him. “B-But-”

 

“Leave or I’ll kill you.”

 

Blue’s eyelights snapped up just in time to see a fat crimson tear rolling down one of Red’s cheeks. His Soul lurched, so many emotions pushing and pulling him in every direction. “Red-”

 

“ _Now_.” Red’s voice cracked, even though it was barely a whisper in the first place, a tear dripping down the other cheek following the words.

 

Blue felt his throat swelling up. He couldn’t-

 

A crackle of magic and heat against his face had his eyes opening, and staring right back at him was the face of a Gaster Blaster. “Go!” Red practically shrieked, face hidden behind what he had summoned.

 

Blue choked out a single, strangled sob, and ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I look up the compatibility of a Scorpio and a Pisces? Indeed.
> 
> Were the results good? Absolutely.
> 
> Did that have anything to do with how I picked their signs in the first place? ...Perhaps, to some extent.


	16. Chapter 16

Red hadn’t been lying when he said the tacos were he best he had ever had. His brother had made them a few times, but they were nothing beyond average. Blue’s… though… were very good, possible poison aside.

 

But now the remaining taste of them in his mouth was sour, the energy they had been converted into buzzing uncomfortably in his bones. He’d fucked up again. Of course he had, having a nice chat with someone from another fucking universe who was trying to help him. Fighting back tears, Red stood up and stared at the other skeleton. “Okay. Thank you for the food, and the medical care ‘r whatever, but you have to go now.”

 

Blue nodded, sadness evident in his eyelights, but still geared up to leave. Red was expecting a goodbye, the anticipation of the relief of being done with this on the horizon, but then the little fucker was smiling at him, just as sweet as ever, saying that they should talk more, implying that it wouldn’t fuck the both of them over beyond measure, assuming that Red even wanted anything to do with him…

 

“No.” He just wanted this to be over. He was so very tired. “I’m still not giving you my number. It’d just be a huge pain in both of our asses to try and be pals or whatever. My arm’s gonna be fine, you said it yourself, so there’s no reason for you to come back here or talk to me again. Ever.”

 

Blue looked so crushed that Red honestly felt bad. The idiot was too kind for his own good, sacrificing any sort of logic in order to be nice to him. Who would want to hang around him any longer than necessary? Nobody with a single drop of intelligence to their name, which is why the possibility of Blue wanting to kill him was still very plausible.

 

Movement in the distance caught Red’s eye, so he glanced up, and had to work very hard not to allow himself to be crushed into a million sorry fragments by the panic that was suddenly grabbing him with its iron claws. Tears flooded into his sockets, bile rose in his throat, and any sort of solutions to this extremely serious problem decided to skip out on him.

 

“B-But-”

 

“Leave or I’ll kill you.” The warmth of a tear rolled down one of his cheeks, but Red paid it no mind. He had much more pressing issues than yet another dose of humiliation.

 

He didn’t hear what Blue said in response, but he could tell that he was still standing in front of him. “ _Now_.” His voice was so weak it honestly disgusted him, but somehow, Blue stuck around.

 

Red grit his teeth, more tears falling as the figure in the distance moved ever closer. He gathered his magic and pointed the most threatening thing he could think of right in Blue’s face before somebody else could. “Go!”

 

It worked.

 

Red dispelled the magic, messily wiping his eyes and sniffling, correcting his posture just as his brother reached him and stared him down. “Sans, who was that?”

 

“U-Uh… just some fucker who wanted uh… food??” Smooth. Good one. Yep.

 

Papyrus narrowed his eyes. “Is that so? That looked like a Sans, did it not?”

 

Red cringed. “Y-Yeah… I think they were drunk, dunno how they ended up here. So then they tried to… feel me up???” Even smoother. Better one. Indeed.

 

“Then they must have been blind.”

 

“They were… _very_ drunk… yes…”

 

Red closed one eye, thinking he was fucked beyond redemption, but his brother only grunted and seemed to drop it. “Well, good job chasing them off. I don’t want dust on my boots.”

 

“Thanks… Boss…” Red said, his voice embarrassingly high.

 

Papyrus didn’t reply, just sighed and continued on down the path. Red practically collapsed back into his chair, feeling like he could breathe for the first time since Blue had shown up. He gulped in the cold Snowdin air, trying to calm the painfully fast beat of his Soul.

 

Blue kind of reminded him of Rus. To some extent, anyway. Rus was more forceful with his kindness. There was a certain gentleness to the other that was quite foreign to Red. It felt strange. New. Unsafe. Good thing he wouldn't have to feel it again.

 

His throat felt no less tight throughout all of his shift, nor through the dinner he was forced to sit through. As soon as he was cut loose, he made a beeline for the only place that could serve him intoxicating substances for a price that didn’t make him want to throw himself off a cliff.

 

Fortunately, other people wanted to do that enough to cover for him. “Hey, runt. Where ya goin?”

 

Red choked on his breath when he was caught by the hood of his jacket, then roughly spun around by a hand that landed painfully hard on his shoulder. A sneering muzzle was jabbed in his face, the teeth yellowed and cracked, no doubt from all the smoke. Doggo.

 

Red just didn’t move. This definitely wasn’t happening today. “Hey, dipshit, I know you’re there, even if you’re still. I’m literally touching your worthless body right now.”

 

“I know.” Red whispered. He could fight back, sure, but he couldn’t risk any retaliations further damaging his arm. It wouldn’t snap if he wanted to open a door, sure, but it wasn’t in any shape to be hit again.

 

His decision worked out well. He was pushed, but he landed on his uninjured arm, and only had to suffer the hysterical laughter of Doggo as well as Greater and Lesser Dog, who were apparently hiding in the bushes. He scrambled to his feet and dashed into Grillby’s, face flushed bright crimson with humiliation the entire way. He made his way to the front of the establishment, and took the stool at the very edge. It was the only place at the front he felt comfortable in, because there was a wall to his back. He couldn’t have anyone behind him, capable of doing anything… even the thought was enough to make him uncomfortable.

 

A heavy sigh with its signature echoing quality and buckets of scorn greeted him a few moments later. “The usual?”

 

“Yeah…” His voice was quieter than he had intended it to be.

 

A glass was slid over to him a minute later, but it was only luck that he managed to catch it, seeing as he was staring down at the bar with all of his might. Lord knows Grillby would have kicked his ass if he had broken one of his glasses. The shot burned going down, but he didn’t care. The distraction was welcome. One more, then another. He liked the way the world’s lines started to blur. It was easy to forget how much he hated them, that way.

 

But it wasn’t enough. Two more. Or was it three? He was such a lightweight. Most people from his universe could take ten with barely a buzz. Would Grillby mind if he took a nap here? Hell if he knew. Maybe he should eat something. All the food here was terrible. But he loved it. Perhaps-

 

He spun around with enough force to dust someone when he felt a hand on his shoulder.


	17. Chapter 17

Blue immediately cringed at the sound of his friend’s voice. “Hey, Sans.”

 

“Uh… yeah, Al?”

 

The reptilian monster stared down at him. “So, I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve been missing from your station twice this week, for the majority of your shift.”

 

Blue sighed, burying his face in his hands. “I… yeah. I’m sorry. Things just came up, so…” He cut off with another sigh, looking up at the other monster with a general apology reflected in his eyelights.

 

Alphys shrugged. “Just at least call in sick next time, alright? I’d like to be able to get someone to fill your shift if you’re not going to be there.”

 

“You got it, won’t happen again.”

 

Well, that put a wrench in his plans, which were proving time and time again to be bad ones. Just earlier that day, his alternate had chased him away with a very believable death threat, but after time to calm down and some careful deliberation, Blue decided that had to go back, yet again. He couldn’t really explain it. Some primal urge was begging him not to give up on Red. He felt responsible for him, in a way, as if he owed it to the Fell monster to stick by his side, even though he clearly wanted nothing to do with him. But Blue could tell, as he always seemed to be able to, that Red wouldn’t actually kill him. He’d seen the looks in the eyes of those types of monsters before, and Red’s eyelights possessed none of it.

 

So, how was he to amble on over to Underfell - which was still just as illegal as ever - and find Red outside of their work hours? Sure, there were some places that he would likely find him, but the problem was that all of those places involved other monsters, or in the worst case scenario, Red’s brother.

 

Upon getting home, Blue went up to his room and stared at himself in the mirror. It’s not like he walked around waving a neon flag for attention, but he didn’t exactly blend in with the crowd either. And that was what he needed to do if he planned on visiting Underfell again and stepping into the sight of any of the natives.

 

Blue certainly valued logic and reason, but his emotions often brushed that aside. So, with a deep breath to calm himself, Blue informed his brother that he was going to be gone for the evening and set to work. The first and most obvious order of business was to rid himself of the same bright blue bandana he had worn every day of his life for well over a decade, even though it left his neck feeling uncomfortably bare. The boots and gloves of the same color were the next to go, then replaced with hiking boots and another pair of gloves that were conveniently black, which would give him lots of points in his mission to blend in. Then, the only jacket with a hood he had. It was a light gray rather than black, but it was inconspicuous enough. The only problem was the star design on the front, so Blue resorted to wearing it inside out before sneaking out of the house as stealthily as he could manage to avoid his brother questioning him on his strange new look.

 

Upon arriving in Underfell, Blue already wanted to turn back, but this had always been more about what he felt he _needed_ to do more than anything else. The walk through Snowdin Forest wasn’t that bad, but once the town was visible in the distance, Blue needed to stop for more deep breaths. He could do this. Sure, killing in Underfell was legal in most circumstances, but its not as if people were being dusted left and right, day in, day out. There wouldn’t be any monsters left, otherwise.

 

Reassured at least to some extent, Blue pulled the hood of the jacket up over his head, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and set off. He kept his head down, so he didn’t see anything in very much detail, but he could tell that the monsters of Underfell’s Snowdin didn’t care much about how they treated it. There weren’t many monsters out, but the ones that were gave him strange, most certainly hostile looks, and thankfully nothing further.

 

Once he had reached it, Blue swiftly slipped inside the first place he had thought to look, frantically glancing around the place and dashing off towards a figure, just as hunched as ever, near the front of the restaurant. He didn’t bother to pause to see who was looking at him, because he was sure it was everyone and that was not something he needed to be thinking about.

 

As soon as he reached Red, he placed a hand on his shoulder, gathering his breath to whisper something, but the other skeleton whirled on his so fast that it stole the words directly from his mouth. Red’s eyelights were blazing with panic, but at the same time so blurry that the effect was almost counteracted. Blue thought that Red was about to attack him for a second, but as soon as he seemed to realize who it was, he gripped onto one of Blue’s humeri so hard that he had to bite back a cry of pain, and dragged him out of the building, then around to the back of it. Blue squeaked when he was roughly pushed up against a brick wall, and Red’s other hand locked onto the hood of his jacket, grabbing a handful of the fabric and shaking him back and forth with it.

 

“You fucking _idiot_!” The Fell skeleton spat, thrusting his face right up to Blue’s, teeth bared. “You could have gotten yourself killed! What the hell is wrong with you?! God, _fuck_ -!”

 

Blue swallowed. He could smell the alcohol on Red’s breath, overpowering and burning the back of his throat with how close they were. He honestly couldn’t tell what the monster before him was thinking in his compromised state. He looked on the verge of laughter, tears, and violence all at once, but he only shook him again, little flecks of saliva spraying out onto Blue's face with his next words. “ _Well_? That’s it? You just wanna die? Fuck, I can help you with that, buddy, I can help you with that!”

 

Blue flinched, but steadied his voice the best he could. “I won’t come back if you give me your number.”

 

Red released him and hunched over, coughing out several long stretches of wheezing laughter. “Oh, you have _got_ to be fucking kidding me!” He stood up again, then looked to the side and gestured at Blue, as if speaking to someone else. “This _guy_ , can you believe him? Dumbest of asses in all of the universes, if I do say so myself.” He finally turned back to him, a sneer plastered on his face. “You know what? _Fuck it_. Anything’s worth it to get rid of you at this point. Give me your fucking phone.”

 

Blue shakily reached into his pocket and handed the device over, watching wide eyed as Red angrily tapped at it, grumbling something unintelligible under his breath the entire way. “There,” he snapped when he was done, shoving the phone back into Blue’s hands. “Have fun with that. Go wild. Rub one out to it or something, I don’t give a shit, just fuck off and never come here again ever, or the other ever, or any ever. Bye.”

 

“O-Okay…” Blue stammered, still quite shaken from all the rough treatment. He glanced down at his phone, and while the name Red had entered for himself was ‘ _fuck you_ ’, it was attached to a number nonetheless.

 

“I said _bye_ ,” Red said, voice dripping with sarcasm as he gestured dramatically back in the direction of the forest and the portal within it.

 

Blue whispered his own farewell, and no longer caring about how much attention he was drawing, set off at breakneck speed towards the portal.


	18. Chapter 18

Red didn’t remember ending up in bed, but he wasn’t really able to remember much of anything after he woke up, because his entire mind was consumed with the one memory that mattered. He had fucked up. A lot. So of course, his solution to this was to sit in his bed and cry, like he always did. Why? All he wanted was to forget that everything with Underswap had ever happened, and now he had some fucking idiot trying to socialize with him for some reason, and he had been drunk enough and stupid enough to give the guy his number?

 

That was what really had him angry. He could have easily given a fake number, so why didn’t he? And even if he did, would that have fixed things? Blue seemed pretty dead set on staying in contact. What would it take to change his mind? Probably something he didn’t have enough energy for.

 

Red dragged himself out of his bed with a groan, shot a hateful glare at his phone, and wandered into the bathroom. Saturdays, the one time his brother didn’t wake him up in what was still practically the middle of the fucking night. He unraveled the bandages around his arm, and looked at it from a few different angles. The bruising had faded, and though the crack was still very evident, it was relatively clean, with no marrow in sight and only a small amount of dried magic.

 

Another sigh as he turned on the shower and waited for the water to warm. It didn’t take very long, but Red stalled, waiting for the mirror to fog over before he finally took his clothes off and stepped under the stream of water. He hated showers, mainly because they required him to be naked, and he didn’t want to have to deal with looking at his own body. It was disgusting. His arms, femurs, ribcage, and even pelvis were littered with scars, all ugly and shameful and mostly of his own doing. He was scrawny, too. A bit tall for a Sans, but not enough to help him feel any less small. Not to mention his face. Huge dark circles persisted beneath his sockets no matter how much sleep he got, but the crack that ran down the entire left side of his face distracted from those. The incident that led to the injury as well as the unfortunate looking gold tooth that was lodged in his mouth was an unpleasant memory, which in turn led him to recall other things he would have rather left alone.

 

His brother didn’t often break bones; it just made Red even more worthless and unable to do his bidding. It had actually only happened a few other times in the past, which meant more than it seemed at first. Papyrus had been… _violent_ towards him for a long time. They were only two years apart, which is an unusually small age gap for a Sans and Papyrus of the same universe to have. And then after that, most of the breaks were accidental, the result of his brother’s lack of control rather than intent. Not this time, though. Papyrus had looked him straight in the face when he did it, and Red didn’t think he would ever forget the look in his brother’s eyes.

 

Since when was he on the floor of the tub? Red shivered despite the warmth of the water, tucking his knees up to his chest and squeezing his eyes shut tight as if that could keep the memories away.

 

The only other time a bone had been broken on purpose was the first time it had happened at all. He couldn’t even remember what had angered Papyrus in the first place that time, but he’d never forget that his brother was _absolutely enraged_ …

 

_He was grabbed by the front of his shirt and yanked towards the much taller skeleton, the dark red of his eyelights seeming twisted and unnatural as he stared back at him._

 

_He’d apologized. Over and over and over until the words stumbled on his tongue and came out as sobs. What was he sorry for? Something he’d done?_ Him _in general?_

 

**_Sorry doesn’t fix it._ **

 

_Papyrus trailed a finder down his ribcage, slowly and gently and in such a manner that Red’s crying was reduced to pathetic little sniffles in light of his confusion. That should have been a fist, and it should have hurt. Papyrus’ hand traveled lower, and Red weakly squirmed in protest when the large monster slipped it beneath his shirt. What? He didn’t want this._ Don’t touch me, _he had tried to say, but his throat was swelled shut. Plus, it’s not as if his brother would have listened._

 

_One of his floating ribs was enveloped in a warmth and given a small tug, and it actually felt nice, like a massage, but the next tug certainly did not feel good. There was a snap, warm magic gushing from the wound and down his spine, and he was left to writhe around on the floor while his brother left the room without another word._

 

_It hurt. It hurt, it hurt, it_ hurt _-_

 

Red gasped in the warm, moist air, able to feel his brother’s hand on his body again. He didn’t want it there. He wished to snap his own ribs off now, just to forget. He raked his claws across his ribcage, delighting in the stinging pain, but it wasn’t enough. He choked down a sob, and dug his claws in deeper. This time, small flecks of bone crumbled away, but that was just the surface. Deeper, and he was rewarded with a small trickle of incandescent red magic. He moved to another spot, digging into his body again until it gave way and more blood escaped.

 

He was at his most beautiful like this, streaked with brilliant crimson and trembling in the aftermath of the indulgence. He felt better now, able to stagger to his feet and do what he had intended to in the first place.

 

He wrapped a towel around himself when he was done, wincing as the rough fabric dragged across his fresh wounds. Diligence had never been his strong point, so he decided that his arm could go unbandaged, as long as he was careful with it. The upside to being made out of bones is that your body is very efficient at healing them.

 

He nearly shrieked in his startlement when his phone rang. Nobody ever called him, what-

 

Oh. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. He could just let it go to voicemail, right? Avoid his problems as he always did? Yes, that is what he could do, and what he should’ve done, but alas, he found himself shuffling over to his bed, picking up his phone and gritting his teeth so hard he was sure they’d shatter before tapping on the loathsome green icon to answer to this mystery caller.

 

“What?”


	19. Chapter 19

Blue’s brother had always hated phone calls, saying he’d gladly fling himself into the fiery pits of hell if it meant escaping one, but Blue had never understood. Sure, texting was fine and all, but it could take much longer to get a series of things communicated, and it was easy to interpret something incorrectly. With phone calls, you could have a real conversation. So… since when had this been such a terrifying prospect?

 

Blue had just marched into Underfell the previous day, exposing himself to plenty of strange monsters, and now he had been sitting on his bed for near ten minutes, fidgeting with his phone in his hands. He couldn’t place it, but the thought of calling Red made anxiety bubble up in his Soul, which was a feeling he wasn’t used to. Stress, self-doubt? Sure, nobody could escape those things, but he rarely felt such… _dread_ at the thought of doing something.

 

He tugged on his bandana yet again, letting a bit of air in to cool his cervical vertebrae, then took a breath and picked the phone up. He had changed the contact name for his Fell counterpart from ‘ _fuck you_ ’ to ‘ _Red_ ’ as soon as he had gotten home the previous night, so he tapped on that with another sharp breath, and dialed.

 

As soon as it started ringing, Blue came to the conclusion that Red surely wouldn’t answer the phone, rubbing at his eyes in frustration, so it startled him way more than it should have when someone actually picked up.

 

“What?”

 

It was certainly Red’s voice, but it sounded strained. Blue didn’t have much time to ponder why this might be before he was rambling out his response. “Oh! H-Hey, Red! It’s Blue, so uhm, this is my number and stuff, so you can put me as a contact now… and uh, I was just calling to say hi!” He finally stopped, panting and hoping with all of his Soul that his breaths weren’t audible.

 

He heard a grunt from the other end, and then a long stretch of silence before any words. “Okay.”

 

Blue swallowed. “Did you… sleep okay? You seemed… pretty drunk last night.”

 

“No shit,” Red spat. “Why do you think you ended up with my number in the first place?”

 

Blue shrunk into himself, unable to stop himself from feeling a little hurt. But, he had expected this. He took another breath, straightening his posture. This was Red. He might not know him that well, but he knew that the aggression was only a front, or at least the spiteful elements of it were. “I know,” he murmured. “We could text instead, if that would be better. Just as long as I know you’re still alive over there.”

 

“...Why do you care?” Red’s voice sounded incredibly small.

 

Blue smiled sadly into the emptiness of his room. “Why wouldn’t I? You came to my universe, you got hurt in my universe… you’re a Sans… a-and you seem sweet!”

 

There was a painfully long stretch of silence from the other end. “...Sweet?” Red finally said, sounding the word out as slowly as he could as if he had forgotten what its meaning was. Then he chuckled, his voice soft and lacking the rough edge it normally did. “Good one. Blue, I call you an idiot quite frequently, but I didn’t mean it in the sense that you’re actually unintelligent. In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve told you to fuck off too many times to count and insulted you way more than that. How is that _sweet_?”

 

“Well…” Blue started slowly, “Those things in particular aren’t sweet, but there’s more to you than that. For one, the second time I came to see you, you answered the questions that you didn’t the first time. It was really _sweet_ of you to remember.”

 

“Oh, uh…” Red paused. “I don’t… think that… um… yeah…”

 

So this was that _awkward silence_ everyone was always talking about? Blue had heard of the phenomenon countless times, but had never experienced it, not to his knowledge, anyway. He quickly concluded that he didn’t like it one bit. “And it was also sweet, in a way… when you, uh… didn’t kill me…”

 

There was a short bark of laughter from the other end. “Oh yeah, definitely. But, uh… don’t you think that kinda gets cancelled out by the fact that I threatened to kill you in the first place?”

 

Blue breathed out in amusement. “I mean… sorry to say, but you’re a bad liar.”

 

“...What?”

 

“I knew you weren’t going to kill me, Red,” Blue said softly. “You just needed me gone. And I’m sorry, by the way. You were clearly uncomfortable, but I didn’t respect that. I should have left the first time you asked.”

 

More silence. “Um… thanks..?” the other monster finally muttered.

 

Blue scrabbled to find another topic to discuss, preferably one more lighthearted, and landed on one of the trademark small talk questions. “What’s your favorite food?”

 

Red was quicker to answer this time. “Uh… probably whatever is the least healthy, I guess.”

 

Blue giggled. “Yeah… I… don’t really like to tell people this, but I have a sweet tooth. I try to fight it, I really do, but sometimes…” He sighed. “Anyway, um… what about music?”

 

Blue kept this up for a while, asking Red thing after thing all while not getting asked a single thing himself. He didn’t really mind, but he was worried that his new conversation partner was desperate to flee, yet too shy to take initiative and hang up.

 

“...Do you have any pets?” he eventually landed on.

 

“Nah,” Red sighed. “...Used to, though.”

 

Blue let a corner of his mouth curl up into a smile. “Oh? Tell me about them!”

 

“Well, a cat. And he wasn’t really mine. He was my brother’s, which explains the dumbass name. _Doomfanger_.”

 

Blue nearly choked. “Doomfanger?!”

 

“I know, right?” Red exclaimed, putting more energy into those words than he had been throughout the entirety of the conversation. “What the fuck kind of name is that? My brother was convinced the guy was his guard animal or something, but all he did was sleep and take a bunch of shits in the least convenient places.”

 

“Yikes. What, ah… happened to him?” Blue tried, cringing at the knowledge that it was probably nothing good.

 

“Died,” Red mumbled. “Or just ran away, I dunno. Haven’t seen him in about a year.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Blue said softly.

 

“Whatever. The boss probably wishes it was me who took a hike, anyway.”

 

“...Boss?” Blue questioned, then swallowed as he realized what it likely meant. “You mean… your Papyrus..?”

 

“...Uh… sure. I guess. I do work for him, so…” Blue heard when his alternate’s breath hitched. “Listen, um… it was nice chattin and all, but I have to go. Bye.”

 

The phone was hung up so fast that Blue jumped, and he cursed himself for messing things up, but felt a little better when he saw how long they had been talking. Nearly half an hour.

 

Better than he expected, that’s for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how to write phone calls.
> 
> Send help.


	20. Chapter 20

Red was paranoid to an unreasonable degree about his phone making noise. What if someone heard? He didn’t want it drawing attention to him, so it was perpetually silenced, but this wasn’t always the most fantastic thing, because he couldn’t call it from someone else’s phone to try and find it if it had slipped away. Then again, this would only annoy his brother beyond belief, so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

 

But even if it kept things private, it did nothing to help him jump any less when his phone vibrated in his pocket. It didn’t help that he was simultaneously cramming food into his face and in a public place, either. He was expecting it to stop, because it was surely some dumb push notification, but it just kept on going. He was confused, then realized what was up and placed his face in his hands.

 

He was pretty much done with his food anyway, and it’s not like he wanted to hang out inside Grillby’s for longer than he had to, but he could just ignore it. He really could. Nothing was stopping him. And yet, purposefully ignoring a call made him… uncomfortable. It felt wrong to him, and he didn’t want the fucker worrying that he was dead and deciding to pay him a visit, right?

 

Red begrudgingly slid from his seat, walked from the building, then dug his phone out of his pocket and leaned up against the rough brick wall of the establishment. He took a deep breath, and answered with a grunt.

 

“Hey, Red!” Blue’s overly enthusiastic voice answered from the other end. “So, how are you?”

 

Red didn’t bother answering the question. “It’s my lunch break.”

 

Blue giggled. “Yeah, mine too.”

 

He sighed. The energy the other Sans had was exhausting. “Okay. So was that all?”

 

“O-Oh um, if you have to go, sure, but I was hoping I could talk to you.”

 

“Why?”

 

Blue was silent for a moment. “Just because. I want to.”

 

Again, why? He was not a good conversation partner. “...Fine, whatever. I don’t really have any fantastical plans that you could be interrupting.” He walked to the back of the building and leaned against it there in order to avoid anyone noticing him hanging around. He felt relatively safe inside Grillby’s, because everyone was afraid of the fiery bastard and knew that he didn’t like fights in his joint, but who knows what could happen outside of it?

 

But even so, nobody would try to kill him, probably. Unless they had a death wish, that is. If everyone was afraid of Grillby, everyone was absolutely _terrified_ of his brother, who would most certainly dust anyone who killed him. Deep down, Red liked to believe that it would be because Papyrus would miss him, but he had a feeling the anger would only stem from frustration of losing a provider of help around the house and such.

 

“Alright then,” Red grumbled into the phone, letting his eyes fall shut.

 

“Um… so, what kind of weather do you like?”

 

Blue sure had some very interesting questions. “Uhh… well I live in Snowdin, so I’d say that I’ve had enough snow. I just want it to be cold and dry. No wind, either.”

 

“Hmm…” Blue hummed. “Well, the snow does sometimes get tiresome, but it’s still nice. It’s so beautiful, as long as nobody tramples it. Which… since there’s rarely any fresh snow, is kind of its constant state, ha. Rain is nice, too. I love to listen to it, though I’m not sure I’d like to be out in it. But overall, I’d say that mild climates are my favorite. Though, a moderate temperature is not enough to convince me to move to the Capital. There are way too many people there.”

 

There was something Red could agree with. “Yeah.”

 

“Uh… what about… video games? My brother and Slim play them all the time. Their competitions get pretty intense, so much so that I’m sometimes seriously concerned for their mental state of being.”

 

Nostalgia glazed over his eyelights. “Slim..?” He hadn’t seen him in ages. Not since his brother and Black had drifted apart, which was nearly a decade ago. He wouldn’t go as far as to claim that time ‘flies’ as people seem to say, but it was strange to realize how long he had been living with… “Right, video games,” he coughed out, blinking away the sting in the back of his sockets.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry, we can talk about Slim if you like-”

 

“No, video games,” Red said with a sharp breath. “Yes, I like them.” He didn’t get to play very many, but he certainly enjoyed them whenever he did. He was a completionist. He wouldn’t move on until he had gotten every achievement and beat every level or collected every secret… if it was to be done, he would do it, even if it took him years. This had been the case with the very last, extremely challenging level of this one game he had finally beaten a few months ago. Apparently, he was one of ten monsters across the multiverse to have beaten it. Perhaps that should make him feel prouder than it did.

 

“Oh, that’s cool!” Blue chirped. “What kinds are your favorite?’

 

“Shooters and stuff,” Red grunted. “But platformers can be fun.”

 

“Ah. I don’t really play them very often, but I feel like my favorites are the ones where you can make choices. I like thinking things through.”

 

“RPGs?”

 

“Yeah, that was the name! And bonus points if you even get to design your character,” Blue added.

 

“Designing a character is all well and good,” Red snorted, “But I don’t see why they even bother at all sometimes. I mean seriously, there was this one game only gave you the option to be an anthropomorphic monster or an elemental one. There are _so_ many more types of monsters than that. Ugh.”

 

“I know!” Blue responded. “I’d love to be able to have wings, but I guess not. Though, I can’t blame the game designers. It takes so long to do the graphics for everything.”

 

“I guess,” Red sighed. He pulled the phone away from his head to check the time, and frowned bitterly upon seeing his break was coming to a close. “Dammit, Blue. You made me miss the rest of my lunch.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the Swap monster replied, actual regret evident in his voice. “I could bring you lunch tomorrow so that we could talk in person, if you like!”

 

He swallowed. “I thought you said that you wouldn’t come here anymore after being given my number.”

 

He hung up.


	21. Chapter 21

Things were progressing well, relatively speaking. Sure, Blue had freaked out for a few minutes after that last call, but things could be going a lot worse. Red could refuse to answer at all, or be a monotone conversation partner, or be cruel to him. He was doing none of those things.

 

Blue made it his primary goal this time around to avoid any sensitivities his counterpart may have had. Of course there was no way to know every single one of the other monster’s triggers, but he would avoid obvious points of discomfort. Namely, his Papyrus. A lump still formed in his throat whenever he thought about it, so until Red was willing to let him in - which he was determined to make happen, no matter how long it took - avoiding the topic didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

 

A bit of anxiety still fizzed in his Soul when he started the call, but it was easily pushed down with a breath as he stared up at the ceiling. Laying in his bed was certainly also helping.

 

“Yeah,” Red mumbled when he eventually answered. That was the best greeting he had gotten yet, a vast improvement from a snappish ‘ _what_ ’ or a begrudging grunt. The Fell monster only sounded tired this time, which made sense, considering that it was quite late at night and time for bed by Blue’s standards.

 

Another thing he was aiming for this time was to be more gentle. He was prone to excitement, yes, but his slight nervousness was playing into the enthusiasm he was putting into his words, which he had realized were probably off putting to a monster as sensitive as Red.

 

“Hey, Red,” he said softly, softening his eyelights in the hopes that a calm, caring expression would carry over into his voice.

 

“Uh, hey…”

 

“What are you doing?” he asked.

 

“M’uh… laying in bed,” came the quiet response.

 

“Oh, me too,” Blue replied with a small smile to himself. “How’s your arm?”

 

“Hm? Oh uh… better, I guess.”

 

“How so?” Blue pressed, trying his best not to seem demanding.

 

Red sighed softly. “Well um… it only hurts now if I do anything… you know… difficult, you could say. The crack is just on the surface now, too. It doesn’t bleed at all anymore.”

 

“That’s really good to hear,” Blue said warmly, searching for another topic. “You know, one time when I was a kid, I was one hundred percent convinced that I could fly. I reasoned that if the measly little attacks I had managed to summon could float, I could too. So, like the silly little skeleton barely passing for older than a babybones that I was, I decided that it would be a good idea to jump off of a tree after climbing it. It didn’t work out so well, but I luckily managed to escape with only a sprained ankle.”

 

Red was silent for a while, then offered one low chuckle. “That was really fucking stupid.”

 

“I know,” Blue giggled. “What mischief did you get into when you were little?”

 

More silence. “I uh… just fucked a lot of things up, heh. Seems like it’s my talent.”

 

Blue swallowed. Perhaps childhood wasn’t the best topic either. “Um… you know, about the whole laying in bed thing… I have a confession.”

 

Red grunted in response, presumably encouraging him to continue.

 

“My bed… it’s… a rocket ship.”

 

Red snorted. “What?”

 

“Aha, yeah. Well, not literally a rocket ship in and of itself, but the headboard looks like one.” Blue chuckled, feeling his cheeks warm with the slightest bit of embarrassment. “Me and my Papyrus made it a long time ago, and I can’t bring myself to get rid of it.”

 

“Why a rocket ship, though?” Red asked. “Rus has a race car bed, I hear.”

 

“Yeah, he does,” Blue said with a small breath of amusement. “My bed is a rocket ship because I love what it would be able to bring me to if it were real. I love space.”

 

Red gasped. The sound was small, and quite frankly adorable. Blue smiled when the other skeleton began to respond. “You do?! So do I!”

 

“What’s your favorite planet, then?” Blue asked excitedly.

 

“CFBDSIR 2149-0403!”

 

Blue paused. He certainly didn’t know that one off the top of his head. He probably would have heard of it if it were to be described to him, but he wasn’t familiar with scientific astro-babble. “Oh, could you describe that one to me?”

 

“Oh, right,” Red said breathily, as if he was out of breath from the excitement. “It’s like- huge. Bigger than Jupiter, and with a much higher mass, too! It’s like, so dark that it’s pitch black, but-”

 

“It’s hot!” Blue finished for him, recalling hearing of this one. “So hot that it literally glows red in some places, but it’s not _supposed_ to be hot!”

 

“Yeah!” Red continued. “Because it doesn’t have a star to warm it up and it’s not big enough to qualify as a brown dwarf and create its own thermonuclear fusion and heat! It’s _crazy_ , isn’t it??”

 

“It is!” Blue practically squealed, then did his best to calm down. “As for me, I like the one that’s a huge ocean, on every single point of its surface!”

 

“That one is really cool too,” Red quickly replied. “Also known as GJ 1214 b.”

 

Blue shook his head and grinned, baffled as to how Red could remember all those scientific names. “It’s also a pretty crazy one. The water gets so deep that the pressure is so great that-”

 

“The water literally gets compressed into ice, even though its not cold!” Red exclaimed. “Ice 7!”

 

“Yeah, yeah!” Blue said excitedly. He gulped in a few breaths, trying to regain his composure, then asked about the obvious sequel to the previous question. “Okay, but how about stars? What’s your favorite there?”

 

“The Pistol Star,” Red chuckled, “Because it’s named after a kind of gun. And it’s absolutely gorgeous,” he added with a sigh.

 

“I can agree with that one,” Blue responded. “As for me, I like Betelgeuse. It’s unbelievably gigantic, and the name is just funny to me for some reason? I don’t know why, but it charms me.”

 

They kept on going, asking about favorites and ranting about how fascinating everything was. Blue learned that Red’s favorite nebula was the Boomerang Nebula, and his favorite phenomenons were binary black holes. Blue in turn informed the other monster that his favorite nebula was the Horsehead Nebula and his favorite space phenomenons were quasars.

 

When they were finally done, they were practically panting from how much energy they had been putting into the discussion. Red cut the comfortable silence off with a yawn. “Damn… I gotta go to bed. What has it been- what the fuck? Blue, we’ve been ranting about space for an hour.”

 

“Wow, really?” Blue murmured, the gentleness having returned to his voice. “Doesn’t surprise me, honestly. I’ve never found anyone willing to talk about it so much. Sure, Comic’s down, but I lose him once I start talking about things like kugelblitzes.”

 

“Lame,” Red softly scoffed. “Aside from you apparently, I’ve never known anyone who gives half a shit about space, actually. Unless you count my Alphys, but she’s more about the knowledge than the passion, and doesn’t entertain my stupid babblings about it.”

 

“They aren’t stupid,” Blue reassured him.

 

“Heh, thanks…” Red sighed, ending with another small yawn. “So, night, then? I need sleep if I want to survive the morning.”

 

“W-Wait,” Blue whispered.

 

“Huh?”

 

He swallowed, grabbing a fistful of his blankets. “Red… p… please let me be your friend…”

 

There was silence from the other end. Silence, silence, silence.

 

After what felt like hours, it was finally broken by the sound of his being hung up on.

 

Without a single word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, all of the space information is accurate.
> 
> I'm a nerdy Sans inside.


	22. Chapter 22

Friends. When was the last time he had one of those? What _was_ one of those? Red honestly couldn’t say. Was it someone you didn’t hate and consequently made the effort to spend time with them? Was it someone you trusted? Loved? Cared about? What were the requirements? Upon thinking about this further, Red deduced that he had only had one friend in his life; his brother. Papyrus used to be the sweetest thing, so caring and full of so much _hope_ …

 

_I’ll protect you, Sans!_

 

_Really, Pap?_

 

_Yeah! I promise I’ll never let anybody hurt you, no matter what._

 

Red squeezed his eyes shut tight. He wasn’t ready to lose that again, not now, not ever. He didn’t sleep at all that night after hanging up the phone, and barely managed to get through the next day on his feet. He had gotten smacked for an oversight, but overall, things went as they normally did. He did the mandatory phone check just as he was about to fall into bed, and found what he honestly should have expected. Three missed calls from a number he hadn’t yet bothered to give a contact name to.

 

His breathing got faster, his eyes stung, his throat felt tight. He knew this feeling, the one when he didn’t see an escape. _Look harder_ , he told himself. He could always kill himself, or perhaps throw his phone off a cliff. While the former did sound like a pretty good idea right about then, he knew that would probably lead to Blue meandering back into his universe and getting horribly murdered. Red… didn’t want that.

 

He swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and cleared his call logs. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

This didn’t last long. After some much needed sleep, he was greeted with another missed call, this time with a voicemail attached. His thumb hovered over the button to listen to it almost subconsciously, but he grit his teeth and deleted it instead. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

Again, his relief was short-lived, for that night he was confronted with another issue. Texts. These displayed automatically, so he glanced at one on accident, then nearly threw his phone across the room in some strange concoction of frustration, sadness, and fear. He deleted them as soon as he had caught his breath and pushed down his tears, putting all of his effort into not reading them. He didn’t think he could handle looking at whatever they said. _Out of sight_ , _out of mind_. He was growing less and less convinced of that with every passing day.

 

The next morning was worse. Despite sleeping soundly enough, he barely managed to drag himself out of bed, through his morning routines, his brother’s bullshit, and to his station, then was still practically on the verge of sleep when he got there. The only thing keeping him awake was his paranoia that somebody could sneak up on him while he slept. That was one of the many things setting him apart from most of the non-Fell Sanses, the inability to sleep unless conditions where perfect. But alas, despite his fatigued efforts, someone ended up taking him off guard anyway.

 

Red looked up, feeling as if the bags he could sense under his sockets were tugging his entire head down onto the desk. He wasn’t mad, not really. Just tired. He wanted to go to bed. “I thought you said you wouldn’t come here anymore if you had my number,” he finally muttered, letting his eyes fall closed.

 

“It doesn’t really count if we never talk,” Blue murmured gently.

 

Red sighed, and allowed the silence to drag on. Maybe Blue would finally give up on him as he should have done long ago and leave. His wishes were not granted. Red warily opened his eyes at the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow and around his station, and glanced over his shoulder. Blue was looking down at him, cyan eyelights soft and kind and full of nothing but honesty.

 

“Can I touch you?” Blue quietly asked.

 

“No.” Red watched as the smaller skeleton hesitated, looking lost, then sighed and closed his eyes again, grimacing. “Fine.”

 

A gloved hand came to rest atop his shoulder, and he flinched, but hesitantly relaxed again after a moment. Most of the physical contact he had these days hurt. “Red-”

 

“You’re a fucking idiot for wanting to be my friend,” he said, sighing heavily. “Through and through.”

 

His shoulder was given a soft squeeze. “Even if that’s true, it doesn’t make it any less real,” Blue said reassuringly.

 

Red shook his head, opening his eyes again and staring mournfully off into the distance. “Nah, you just pity me. That spot’s already been filled many times over, _buddy_ , and none of those guys are my friends.”

 

Another squeeze. Red was just beginning to realize how sore his shoulders were. The only reason the touch wasn’t setting him off was because it wasn’t a surprise and it was through plenty of clothing. He’d nearly been in tears the first time Blue was patching his arm up, and not just because it hurt. He did _not_ like anyone seeing his scars, but mercifully, Blue hadn’t made any comments.

 

He was pulled from the unpleasant memories by a voice. “ _Red_.” Blue sounded so pleading, so desperate, that the Fell monster had to turn around to look at him, browbones scrunched up in uncertainty. “I _promise_ , that’s not true. I want to be your friend, I truly do, and I won’t stop wanting to, either.”

 

Red’s breath hitched. That was what he was so afraid of in the first place, wasn’t it? Not friendship in and of itself, but the loss of it. Shamefully, a tear rolled down one of his cheekbones, and he sat there in utter shock when the thumb of Blue’s free hand tenderly swiped it up, the soft leather of his bright blue gloves soft and warm against his face.

 

“I _promise_.” Blue’s eyes were moist with tears as well.

 

Red swallowed around the lump in his throat. He was an idiot, through and through.

 

“...Fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! We've finished the first 'segment' of the story, pre-friendship or something.
> 
> It'll probably be a little while before the next chapter, because this was as far as I had planned the plot when I started writing this. I'd like to map a good ways ahead before I start writing again, so to the people that follow this for some reason, I'll try not to completely ruin the story line.
> 
> Thank you for reading this far <3


	23. Chapter 23

“So… friends. Define that?”

 

Due to the nature of Underfell and the wishes of the other Sans, Blue had gone home soon after Red’s agreement, but didn’t hesitate for a single second to call him once he was back at his station. He was anticipating a question like this to be one of the first he would receive, but he was happy to answer if it would help Red to feel more comfortable.

 

“Well… there's no set definition,” Blue started, “But I could tell you what it means to me, at least. Well… perhaps not, because it means a lot of things to me.” This was not going well. “But, as for us, all it means for now is that we both put in effort to spend time together, and then enjoy each other’s company while doing so.” He giggled. “It doesn’t really count as friendship if we can’t stand each other.”

 

Red let out a single huff of laughter. “‘Spose not. But, uh…” he seemed to hesitate, “As I hope you’ve picked up by now, spending time with me isn’t really the easiest thing, nor the best way you could choose to waste your time.”

 

“Hush,” Blue said gently. “If I didn’t want to spend time with you, I wouldn’t. And… I don’t mind,” he murmured, “I’m totally fine with just the phone calls.” _For now_ , he quietly added to himself.

 

“O… Okay…” Red said quietly.

 

Blue swallowed. “So, when would be the best time to call you? I’ll do whatever’s most convenient for you.”

 

“Well, um… In the couple hours after we get out of work is good, but then not again after that until the night. Like, nine.”

 

“Alright,” Blue said, nodding even though Red couldn’t see the gesture. “What time do you normally go to bed?”

 

“Uh…” Red paused for a while. “It depends. Not as early as I should, honestly. Probably twelve at the earliest.”

 

Blue was surprised at that one. He was used to seeing eleven as late, and was always baffled at how his brother was scoffing and saying that two in the morning was too early of an hour to be going to bed. But, he wouldn’t mind a bit less sleep every now and then if it meant more opportunities to talk to his new friend. “Okay, I can work with that. What about on the weekends?”

 

“Oh, uh, right.” Red paused again, then spoke just before things got uncomfortable. “Saturdays are pretty fine. I have to clean and stuff still, but I’m not as supervised as I…” He trailed off. “Um, yeah. Saturdays are good whenever.” He coughed. “And uh… Sundays are fine at night.”

 

Blue was going to question what kept Red away from the phone during the day on Sundays, but didn’t push it. He didn’t want to strike any nerves, seeing as there appeared to be many of them. “Alright!”

 

Red muttered something into the phone, but Blue couldn’t quite make out the words. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you. What?”

 

“U-Uhm…” Red stammered, “And… if ya really wanted to, I guess you could call on my lunch… sometimes…”

 

Blue smiled to himself, Soul stuttering. “I… only if _you_ want me to, Red.”

 

The other skeleton swallowed audibly. “Just… whatever,” he finally murmured.

 

Blue couldn’t think of a better example of a non answer, but it would have to do for now. “Alright.” He shifted. “So I suppose that means you have to go, then? It is kind of in the middle of the work day.”

 

“Uh, yeah. I should start looking like I’m being productive before someone takes note of me. U-Uh… bye…”

 

Blue couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face after setting his phone down. Sure, maybe Red hadn’t exactly given him time to say his goodbyes in return before hanging up, but it was surely an improvement. The rest of his shift passed smoothly, but the same couldn’t be said about what happened when he got home.

 

“So, bro, you’ve been seeming a little off lately. You alright?”

 

Blue struggled to wrestle his gloves off of his hands, then swallowed as he turned to face his brother. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he said as steadily as he could. It wasn’t a lie.

 

Stretch cocked his head, then reached out with one of his freakishly long limbs and patted the spot next to him on the couch. “Cummere.”

 

Blue sighed, then walked over to the couch and plopped down in the seat as instructed.

 

“Take your shoes off,” Stretch gently prompted.

 

Blue glanced at him, then bent over and and pulled his boots off of his feet, sighing and wiggling his toes in the open air once they had been freed. He’d always hated socks.

 

“Closer.”

 

Blue scooched up to his brother until their shoulders touched, then let out a long breath when Stretch took one of his hands in both of his and rubbed soothing circles into his palm. “Come on Sans, I know you better than that. What’s really been going on? I feel like we’ve barely talked lately.”

 

Blue grimaced, knowing it was nothing but the truth. Caught up in all of his recent perils, he hadn’t really made any time for his brother, which he hated. “I know,” he murmured, “And I’m sorry. I promise it’s not on purpose.”

 

“I know,” Stretch replied. “I’d be able to tell if you were avoiding me.” True. His brother had always been scarily observant.

 

“Yeah…”

 

“You didn’t answer my question,” Stretch pressed. “What’s on your mind?”

 

Blue let out a long breath when his brother moved on to gently massaging his joints, letting his head fall to the side and onto Stretch’s shoulder. He wanted to tell him, he really did, but he owed it to Red and the entirety of their little delicate disaster of a relationship to keep things as simple as he could.

 

He drew in another breath, and lied through his teeth, hating every word. “To be honest? I don’t know what’s been up with me. I’ve just been feeling stressed, and I don’t know why. Nothing’s changed, really, but life just feels more… _draining_ lately, for some reason. It’s kinda freaking me out.” He wanted to fall to his knees and confess his sins to one of those gods the humans were apparently all crazy over, he felt so guilty for the lies.

 

Stretch took a while before responding. He was warm, and Blue was feeling more and more sluggish by the minute. “Do you think… you’re lonely?”

 

Blue opened his eyes upon hearing that one. “No?” He would have no reason to be, would he? He had a group of close friends and Stretch by his side, so he couldn’t see how loneliness should be a factor in his life.

 

Stretch hummed. “Well, I just figured that maybe seeing Dream so far along got you thinking about relationships. I mean, that is around the time you started acting weird.”

 

Blue paused. That was indeed around the time his life had obtained some new elements, yes. “I… guess you’re right…”

 

Stretch chuckled. “I mean, I haven’t dated anyone for a long while, and I honestly prefer it that way. Too much work, you know?”

 

Blue smiled and gave his brother a little nudge. “Maybe you should talk about that with Slim.”

 

Stretch huffed. “I can’t possibly fathom why that would be beneficial.” That was a typical response his brother gave when questioned about the other Papyrus, and Blue knew from experience that his face would be flushed orange.

 

“But anyway,” Stretch continued after clearing his throat, “I was wondering if you might be thinking it’s time to develop something more serious with someone.”

 

Blue pondered this. He’d been on a few dates in his times, complete with a healthy amount of prior flirting and a goodnight kiss and all, but things never seemed to progress from there for him. He had to admit it was a little discouraging, but he didn’t let it ruin him. Though, the idea was one that had long intrigued him. He’d always been a romantic.

 

He sighed. “Yeah, maybe that’s it.” He didn’t really know if the confession had any real truth to it in the context of changing his behavior, but it was a good enough answer to dodge any further questions.

 

“Okay,” Stretch said quietly, rolling Blue’s thumb joint around in his fingers. “I’ll be there to be your wingman, kick any ass, or welcome any… ass if you need me to, alright? I know I kinda suck at acting like one, but I’m still your big bro. I’ll be there to support you, so long as you’re being safe.”

 

Blue cringed at that one. Underfell was not what would be considered safe by most. “Thanks, Papy…”

 

“No problem.”

 

Stretch continued in his hand massage, and sitting there, soaking up the other monster’s warmth, Blue finally found his fatigue catching up with him. He yawned and turned his head to the side, nuzzling into his brother’s offensively orange sweatshirt. It might have smelt like smoke and was a bit overdue for a wash, but it was familiar and safe, so he was content to let his eyes slide shut and allow his consciousness to take a break from itself where he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back for a bit! I actually have a few other things I need to write right now, but they will be quick and more of this is plotted out, so the wait shouldn't be too long if I can dodge my procrastination habits well enough.


	24. Chapter 24

“Sans, who’s this?”

 

Red shuffled over to the other side of the couch with a groan to see what his brother was talking about. “Huh?”

 

“Your phone," Papyrus sighed. "Why are there so many calls from this number?”

 

If he was physically capable of doing so, Red would have pissed himself right then and there. “U-Uhm… u-uh… c-can I see?”

 

Another heavy sigh, and his phone was placed in his trembling hands. Indeed, there were near a dozen calls from a number without a contact. Red swallowed, his Soul pounding. He slowly looked up at Papyrus, blinked once, then spoke. “It’s just… Alphys... because sometimes she likes to run ideas by me.”

 

Papyrus narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t you have a contact, then?”

 

Red scrambled for an adequate answer. “I’m… too lazy?”

 

Papyrus scoffed. “Right, how could I forget?” He began to walk away, but spoke over his shoulder just before the next room had claimed him. “And tell Alphys to stop calling you for advice. I don’t think it’ll help her very much.”

 

Hurt welled up in Red’s throat, and he tried to swallow it down, but it persisted until he was sniffling and pressing his palms into his leaking sockets as if it would stop the tears from coming. At first it was just sadness, but the panic came a few minutes later, sharp and bitter and slicing through his Soul much more harshly than he had been prepared for. Red gasped in a breath of air, scrambling to his feet, up the stairs, and then into his room, nearly slamming the door shut behind him before leaning his back against it and slowly sinking to the floor. His phone, now sticky with a mix of his sweat and tears, was allowed to tumble to the carpet so that Red could attempt to muffle his shameful noises with both hands.

 

If his brother would have tapped on one of those call records, he would have seen that in some of them, Red had been talking to ‘ _Alphys_ ’ for well over the time it would take to have a quick chat about an idea. He could of course have tried to lie around that one as well, but Papyrus was no idiot, and being caught in a lie was a painful experience, in more ways than one.

 

But this time? When another monster was caught up in the lie? He didn’t know how his brother might react. Not well, for sure. He knew that communication, and let alone _friendship_ with Blue would be strongly disapproved of by Papyrus, and if he knew, they’d be forced to cut all ties, and Blue would probably receive a very unpleasant visitor, with a few scars to remind him of the incident. Or, he could of course just be dusted, like many of the monsters unfortunate enough to displease Red's brother were.

 

Red shot his hands down to the floor, digging his claws into the carpet so hard that he was sure it could have splintered his fingertips. He gasped for air, feeling as his ribs burned and bile rose in his throat. He ripped his hands upward, sending stinging pain shooting up his fingers and little pieces of the carpet flying. Papyrus would kill him if he saw the damage, but luckily, he couldn’t stand being in Red’s room, because it apparently smelled bad and was disgusting in every possible way. Red didn’t know if he agreed with that, but it was certainly the most… unsightly room in the house.

 

Yes. Yes it was. He let out the air he had been holding in, focusing on how his ribcage shuddered with the effort. He was okay. For now, at least. His brother had bought his bullshit lies, and he had escaped the situation with nothing more than an insult.

 

He clumsily wiped away his tears, then scrabbled to grab his phone. He dropped it a few times once he had gotten it within his grip, but he managed to lift it to a comfortable level after a lot of swearing and a lot of failure, then went back to the call logs that were almost the death of him. He knew he had to do this now, so he would have to submit to the embarrassment of an unsteady voice, because it would take him too long to truly calm down.

 

When Blue answered, he sounded truly shocked. “Oh, Red! You called me-!”

 

“Uh, y-yeah,” Red coughed. “Listen, Blue, so, I kinda fucked up.”

 

“Huh? What’s wro-”

 

“M-My… uh, Papyrus almost discovered that I’ve been talking with you.”

 

Red cut Blue off again before he even got halfway through his first word. “So uh, we gotta stop talkin on the phone so much.” He could delete the records, sure he could, but he knew he would forget at some point, and one of these phone checks he had gotten used to would uncover the full extent of the truth eventually.

 

Blue was silent for a while. “Um… I… if that’s what’s safe, okay.”

 

“Yeah.” His voice was shamefully strained, and he was desperate to be free of this conversation to give in to his babyish tears again, but a quiet voice stopped him before he could hang up.

 

“I… I really don’t want to make you uncomfortable, _really_ , but…” Blue’s voice faltered, and he coughed lightly before continuing. “I’d love it if you could come here for a visit. J-Just for a little bit…”

 

Red blinked, a tear consequently being pushed off the rim of his socket and running down his cheek. “Are you fucking insane?” he eventually breathed. He cleared his throat in hopes of sounding like he wasn’t about to burst into tears, which he most certainly was. “In case you’ve forgotten, that’s beyond illegal as of now and we’d both face the consequences if we were found out.” _Mine more painful than yours_ , he added to himself.

 

“N… Nobody would know what universe you were from upon first glance…” Blue responded, voice very quiet.

 

“That doesn’t matter,” Red muttered bitterly, pushing back the urge to sniff. “I still don’t want to be seen.”

 

The silence stretched on between them until it was broken by a sniffle. Red was ready to curse himself for letting the noise slip, but he realized soon enough enough that surprisingly, he had not been the one to make it.

 

“Please?” Blue croaked. “Just for a few minutes even, we can stay in Snowdin Forest, right by the portal. Nobody will see us, and you could bail with a couple of footsteps if you wanted. _Please_ …”

 

Red knew his throat was going to swell closed under the sudden flood of emotions battering it, so he had to act fast. “...Fine.”

 

He hung up after that, managed to drag himself into his bed, and as he knew he would, cried. He balled his blanket up enough so that he could wrap both sets of his limbs around it to absorb the pathetic little lurches of his chest and endure the crushing grip of his trembling hands it was being subjected to. The only downside to this position was that his face was also buried in the familiar soft folds of the fabric, and it reeked of _him_. He did not like the smell one bit, but this was in no way surprising, because there wasn’t a single thing about himself he didn’t hate.

 

Red hadn’t intended to fall asleep, but he was done with his responsibilities, so he didn’t wake to screaming after an hour of peace, but to silence the next morning. Out of habit, the first thing he did once he was awake enough to force his limbs into action was check his phone, though the screen nearly had him throwing it across the room in his startlement once he flicked it on. A text, undoubtedly from Blue, though the screen only displayed it as ‘ _Universe 2, #82865_ ’. When you really stopped to think about it, it was quite sad that Underfell was only the third universe, right after Underswap. The world just couldn’t wait to have a playground to make people miserable in, it seemed. Thanks to the option in the settings and Red’s lack of interesting things to do with his life, the universe number hadn’t displayed in the call logs, giving his lies of it being Alphys a fighting chance.

 

After getting over the initial shock of seeing it, Red unlocked his phone, went to his rather empty messaging app, and read the damned thing. ‘ _Hi, Red! So, since we didn’t exactly figure a time out, I thought I may as well ask you if tomorrow could work, since Saturdays are good days for you. I don’t have anything planned, so any time could work for me if you’re free._ ’

 

Ah, yes, Saturdays. His favorite time of the week, mainly because if he planned his movements correctly, he could avoid seeing his brother at all. Being the big bad Captain of the Royal Guard, Papyrus had to work on Saturdays, so Red was left unsupervised with only a list of chores. If he completed all of them to a satisfactory degree by the time Papyrus got home, he wouldn’t be pursued about them, so if he decided to stay out late or hide out in his room, interaction could be skipped altogether.

 

Red rolled out of bed, frowning upon the recollection that he had slept in all of his clothes, then trudged down the stairs to see what he had been left with today. The instructions were relatively liberal, and he could see himself being done in a few hours, accounting for his laziness and a couple breaks of slumping over on the couch, thinking about how much he hated everything.

 

A glance at the clock, and he was ready to calm the small tremble in his hands and attempt to reply without making a fool of himself. He took a deep breath, and tried to get his message across in as few words as he possibly could. Texting had always stressed him out. ‘ _three could work_ ’

 

He hadn’t even managed to set the device down before it buzzed with a reply. ‘ _Great! I’ll see you there._ ’

 

Unfortunately so.

 

Red was standing by the portal in his universe at 2:45, using the extra time to justify his stalling. He probably should have changed his clothes, shouldn’t he? He’d already slept and then cleaned in them, and now he was creating some pretty mean precipitation thanks to his good old friend anxiety. He was hoping Blue wouldn’t want a handshake, because his palms were clammy enough to be put on the menu of a seafood place. He chuckled weakly at his own lame pun, but his Soul felt no less sour. 2:59, and he decided that if he’d been dedicated enough to stand around for fifteen minutes in the snow, he may as well carry through.

 

When the clock hit three, he took a few breaths, suppressed his urge to vomit, then activated the portal, used his minimal knowledge of Underswap to imagine the place, and stepped through. His efforts were almost for naught when he landed on the other side, considering the fact that he was greeted with a very nice mouthful of searing magic bile, but he managed to swallow it down and look up in time to see Blue scrambling to his feet and bounding up to him, looking far more excited than seemed reasonable.

 

“R-Red! You made it!” The skeleton extended a hand out, probably intending to touch him in some way, but he seemed to second guess it, and backed up a few steps, much to Red’s relief.

 

He shuffled to the side and leaned heavily on a tree, face hot with a mix of his panic and embarrassment. “Just… give me a minute…” he muttered.

 

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Blue murmured softly. A few moments dragged by, heavy with the uncomfortable silence filling the small clearing, until the Swap monster spoke again. “I’ll walk a ways down the path, so call me back when you’re good, okay?”

 

“Whatever,” Red panted, squeezing his eyes shut tight and relying on his hearing in order to confirm that Blue had indeed left the clearing and wandered away.

 

He turned his face skyward once he was alone, letting his breaths billow in the cold Snowdin air and calm him as much as could be reasonably expected. Once he felt as if he wouldn’t fall over without the tree to support him, he opened his eyes and blinked a few times, observing that Blue had set a blanket out for them to sit on in the minimal space available.

 

Red was just starting to defeat the crimson flush on his face, so the sweet gesture was not appreciated in that sense. He grit his teeth, then parted them and softly shouted out a low “Okay,” before he decided to bail and flee back through the portal.

 

He could tell from the sound of the footsteps that Blue full-on ran back to the clearing, stopping abruptly once he had entered it again and offering up a smile. He shrugged the backpack he was wearing from his shoulders and set it down beside the blanket, then gestured to it. “Care to have a seat?”

 

Red grunted, awkwardly taking the single step that was needed to reach the blanket before lowering himself down onto it. Blue joined him after that, and they were treated to another healthy dose of awkward silence until the more talkative of the two of them broke it yet again.

 

“I’m sorry about earlier.”

 

“...What?”

 

“Trying to touch you,” Blue sighed, pulling his gloves off and then fiddling with one as he gazed down into his lap. “I know that it makes you uncomfortable, and I’m trying to remember. I just… am a touchy-feely person, I guess.”

 

Red grunted again, wringing his hands together and letting his vision blur as it shifted out of focus while he stared into the trees. “Uh… yeah…”

 

“Can we try something..?” Blue asked hesitantly.

 

“Depends on what it is,” Red said with a heavy exhalation, allowing his body to relax and his gaze to flick to the other monster. He was here now.

 

“How about…” Blue started slowly, “If I ever want to touch you, I ask first. If you say no, then I don’t, and if you say yes, then I can, but you can shove me off at any point.”

 

Red squinted, honestly dumbfounded by the proposal. Why did Blue care so much as to establish such a specific rule about something so basic?

 

“O-Or not-”

 

“No, it’s okay,” Red mumbled, averting his eyes. “Sure, if ya wanted.”

 

Blue sighed, sounding relieved. “Great. ...Can I touch you, then?”

 

Red met his gaze again. “No.”

 

Blue giggled. “Right.”

 

They settled into chatter easily enough, and once Red had stopped periodically glancing around in fear of someone seeing them, which Blue seemed to notice, the smaller skeleton reached behind him and grabbed his backpack. “So,” he started, unzipping it and pulling out a bag, “Your answer about your favorite food just being ‘ _whatever’s the most unhealthy_ ,’ if I’m remembering correctly, wasn’t very specific, but I did my best.”

 

Blue opened the bag, pulled out a container, then popped the lid off to show the contents to Red. He was confused at first, but the smell and Blue’s explanation hit him a second later. “It’s chicken strips - but I only used the dark meat. I wrapped them in bacon and cheese before the breading - or batter, technically - because I never thought I’d need that deep fryer my brother has for some reason, but I’ve proved myself wrong.”

 

Red slowly took the container, mouth agape. Blue reached into his backpack again, and came back with a bottle, then another, and another. “Since I didn’t know what condiment you’d be obsessed with, I brought all of them. I know I’m missing a few, but these were all that I could get at Snowdin’s market. I didn’t want you to have to use ones that’d already been messed with.”

 

Red could feel his face heating rapidly, his rebellious magic congregating at his cheekbones and across his nasal ridge to form a bright crimson blush. There must have been ten different condiments there, and all new?? How much would that have cost?? Red briefly looked at the other Sans, but the kind, gentle look on his face only made his own darken. He slowly pointed to one of the bottles, quite unsure of what to say.

 

Blue handed it to him. “Mustard? Hey, I’ll take that over honey any day. That’s what my Papyrus likes, for some reason.”

 

Red just stared down at the food, finding himself wondering if it was possible to dust from blushing too brightly as Blue tucked all the other bottles away.

 

“Is everything okay?” he asked after Red hadn’t made any moves for a painfully long stretch of time.

 

“Huh?” Red glanced up again, shaking his head as clear as he could manage. “Um, n-no… everything’s… thank you,” he finished, voice practically a squeak.

 

Blue smiled wide, a small cyan blush surfacing on his own cheeks. “Of course! I was happy to.”

 

He knew that even if he hadn’t have skipped lunch, it still would have been the most delicious food he’d eaten in a long, _long_ time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, I'm being much slower than I would like. I'm going to start trying harder.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ship Cameo Four: Swap Alphyne

Undyne stared in disbelief at where Stretch was sprawled across her bed, mouth gaping open as he slept. “W-? What the, what- I don’t- wh- huh???”

 

Blue rubbed at his temples. “Um… sorry about him, I guess…” He didn’t have an adequate excuse for why his brother had invited himself into someone else’s bed and made the decision to take a nap on it.

 

Undyne sighed, fiddling with a lock of her glossy red hair that had fallen loose from her messy bun. “It’s… okay. I never see him anymore, so I suppose napping on my bed is better than nothing?”

 

It was true that the two skeleton brothers had unfortunately grown distant from the fish monster over the years after Stretch had stopped working at the Lab, but they still tried to visit when they could. Things were looking up, however, with Blue’s friendship with Alphys and her recently established relationship with Undyne bringing them far more opportunities and excuses to get together.

 

But, as usual, Stretch decided that few things in life were better than sleeping himself into a pit of despair. Blue’s thoughts of how he was going to need to resort to air horns to get his brother up one of these days were interrupted by a yawn. He glanced at Undyne, really noticing the bags under her eyes for the first time since they’d arrived earlier in the afternoon. “You alright?”

 

“Hm?” Tired yellow eyes flicked up to meet Blue’s. “Oh, u-uh… yeah, I’m okay. M-Mostly.”

 

A flicker of a pained expression across Undyne’s features was all it took to have Blue reaching out and placing a comforting hand on her upper arm. He stepped closer, and embarrassingly, had to look up a bit to meet the fish monster’s eyes. “Do you have someone you can talk to?”

 

Undyne’s cheeks reddened, but her eyes held no distrust. “Alphys… or, I c-could call my old counselor… i-if I needed…”

 

Blue gave her arm a little squeeze. “Do you think you do?”

 

Undyne sighed. “I… maybe? It could just be that I’m having a bad week…”

 

Blue made his eyelights even softer. “It’s Sunday.”

 

“Heh, right…”

 

Blue let her go and took a couple steps back, then offered his friend a gentle smile before continuing. “Just make sure you’re taking care of yourself, okay? You could even talk to me, if you wanted.”

 

Undyne nodded, shifting her weight and running her hand over where Blue had been touching her. “Okay. I’ll see about next week if I’m still feeling down. Thanks, Sans…”

 

“You’re welcome.”

 

Stretch butted into the conversation with a sneeze, but had rolled over and fallen right back asleep a few seconds later. Blue sighed, smiling affectionately at the other skeleton through his exasperation. “So, I guess that’s my cue to get him up and let you get some quiet time in.”

 

“O-Or not…” Undyne quietly replied.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Y-You could stay… if you w-wanted…” she murmured, shooting him a shy glance.

 

Blue smiled. “That would be nice.” He looked to his brother again. “Would you want to let him sleep?”

 

Undyne chuckled. “Yeah. End a nap, end a life.”

 

Blue allowed himself to giggle at the joke as Undyne led him down the escalator and out of her room, then pulled two chairs up for them at the desk stacked alarmingly high with her notes. He was given a soda and things went on smoothly enough. They talked about what was new in life, which for Undyne was exclusively how her first few months with Alphys had been going. Good, it seemed.

 

“Well, I made a new friend!”

 

Undyne blinked. “Oh, who?”

 

Blue realized his mistake all at once, sweat beading on his skull and the can of soda in his hand suddenly feeling a lot more foreign against his bones. Undyne was dating the _Captain of the Royal Guard_ , the rank directly below the queen. Then again… she’d never really advertised herself as a goody two shoes and quite frankly delighted in dodging the rules as long as it didn’t bring doom upon anyone else.

 

Blue swallowed, then met a very confused Undyne’s eyes. “It’s… someone… but… the law doesn’t exactly… _appreciate_ me knowing them.”

 

Undyne leaned forward in her seat, far too intrigued to deny at this point. “That’s okay.” She smiled, shy mischief creasing her face. “The rules have only ever ruined my life anyways.”

 

Blue chuckled, then set his drink down and sat himself straight as if he was presenting important information. He probably was. “It’s a monster from a universe not allowed to visit us.”

 

Undyne cocked a brow. “A Fell universe, eh?” She hummed in thought. “Well, we’ve made deals with most of them already, so let it slip, Sans. Which one?”

 

Blue let out a long breath. “The original. Underfell.”

 

Undyne’s smile stretched wider. “Wow, and they were so recently denied, too!” She was in serious danger of falling off her chair at that point. “So, who??”

 

Blue let his posture deflate. “...Sans.”

 

Undyne choked on her breath, balling her hands into fists and shaking them in her excitement. “Really?? That’s _so_ perfect! Wow- Fell Sans, he must be quite interesting to-”

 

“He’s not like people say,” Blue quietly interjected, stopping Undyne in her tracks.

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yeah,” Blue mumbled, cheeks warming. “As far as I can tell, people just think he hates everyone and will either insult them or avoid them.” Well… that actually had been relatively true at first. “He’s… just…” Blue sighed. “He doesn’t exactly have the best life, and just needs to be given a chance. I think he’s a sweet guy under the surface.”

 

“Can I meet him?”

 

Blue’s gaze shot up to meet the other monster’s again. “What? You want to meet him?”

 

Undyne nodded. “Yeah! I need to know how to write him in my fics.”

 

Blue gave her an unimpressed look. “Well, even if I could somehow convince him to see you, he would _not_ want to go on a hike all the way up here. So… you’d have to come to Snowdin.”

 

“Yeah, I could do th-”

 

“ _If_ he agrees,” Blue stressed. This was probably one of the longest shots he had ever encountered. There was no way that Red would feel comfortable meeting anyone else from his universe.

 

After accepting the terms being sworn to secrecy, Undyne traveled back up to her room, Blue on her heels, to discover that Stretch was thankfully still asleep. Telling his brother was going to be difficult enough, whenever the time came, so having things being brought to life due to an instance of being overheard was not very high on Blue’s list of things he’d be happy to have happen.

 

He nudged Stretch awake, then nearly had to carry him to the ferry for a ride home after they said their goodbyes. Blue was back in his room after he had made dinner for himself and a very groggy Stretch, clutching his phone anxiously in his hands. He really wished he hadn’t have slipped up and let the information loose. Asking this of his friend was not going to be fun.

 

He took a breath, then dialed. Red picked up eventually, yawning into the phone before speaking. “Uh, yeah?”

 

“So… I know you said we should stop talking on the phone so much, but I have something… kind of important to ask you.” Blue cringed at his own words.

 

“Woah, at least take me out to dinner first or something.”

 

It took him a second, but once he got the joke, he giggled. “Sorry, no can do.” He shook away the lightness in his voice. This was not a fun and happy request. “Um… so, to quote you from earlier, ‘ _I kinda fucked up_.’”

 

Red paused, probably at the unusual language from him, then grunted. “Well, you’ve come to the right person for advice, if that’s what you’re after. I fuck up more times in a day than everyone else in the multiverse does in a year, _combined_.”

 

Blue huffed, wanting to scold him for speaking so negatively of himself, but bit the words back and got to the point. “I… accidentally told my Undyne about you. So… now she knows we’re friends.”

 

There was silence on the other end for so long that Blue was just about to jump out of his own window in order to escape the situation, but Red stopped him. “Is that so?” His voice sounded high, almost to a comical extent.

 

“U-Uh, y-yeah, but-!” he raised a hand into the air, despite nobody being around to see the gesture, “She’s okay with it. She promised not to tell anyone, so everything’ll be fine!” He knew he was putting too much enthusiasm into his voice, but he couldn’t really stifle the nervous energy from escaping in one way or another.

 

“...Uh-huh…” Red finally mumbled. “...Well alright then.”

 

Blue was honestly surprised at the calm tone of his voice. “You’re not mad?”

 

Red snorted. “Well, I’m not exactly pleased, but I guess I already backed myself into a corner, and I’m not really in the place to criticize this particular little fuck up of yours.”

 

“Uh… thanks…” Blue knew the forgiveness was not going to last. “But um, there is actually something else.”

 

Red grunted in response.

 

“Now she… my Undyne, uh… wants to meet you.”

 

The Fell skeleton was much quicker to respond this time. “Wait- what the fuck? Like, in person?”

 

“Yep,” Blue squeaked.

 

Red let out a single, mirthless laugh. “Well that’s going to have to be a no larger than the amount of knives I now want to shove up your ass.”

 

Blue flinched. “Yeah, I uh, I deserve that.” He grimaced. “But… are you… absolutely sure?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Blue scrambled for something that might be able to change his alternate’s mind. As much as he hated making Red uncomfortable, he didn’t want to let Undyne down either. “She would, uh, come to the portal, and we could stay there, like last time. I’ll bring more food. A-And she’s really timid around new people. She probably won’t say much, and will want out just as badly as you-!” He stopped himself there. Rambling would do neither of them any good.

 

“Then why did she ask to meet me in the first place?” Red asked, voice low and void of emotion.

 

Blue had actually considered that one quite a bit over the past few hours. “Because her curiosity won over her anxiety in the moment.”

 

These long stretches of silence were becoming quite familiar at this point, so Blue was a bit surprised when it was broken. “...When?”

 

“Wait, really?” Blue asked, caught off guard. He had not expected his argument to work.

 

“If it’ll shut her up,” Red growled. “So?”

 

“Er, ah, whenever you wanted!” Blue replied breathily.

 

“Hmph… tomorrow,” Red grumbled. “Eight... at night, anyway. I want to get this over with.”

 

Blue had to cough in order to regain his voice enough to speak at all. “Okay, s-sounds good! I’ll be looking forward to it!”

 

Red let out a long breath, his voice thankfully softer when he spoke again. “I won’t, but I’m sure you knew that already.”

 

“Yeah,” Blue murmured. “I’m really sorry. I’d take it back if I could.”

 

“Yeah, I know,” Red sighed. “But bye then. I need to go fuck summore things up. I have a reputation to maintain.”

 

Blue was hung up on yet again before he could resort to the series of scolds and rebuttals to the self deprecation he hadn’t been able to get out earlier.


	26. Chapter 26

The dinner Red had been forced to sit down with his brother for rested bitterly in his bones, any emotion he might have been feeling overshadowed by his anxiety. He really didn’t want to meet Swap Undyne, and yet he had somehow agreed? He had luckily been sent to clean his own room this night, so he could drown in his own dread without judgement. Amazingly, he would have preferred the chores to what lay ahead, so finishing his work was not the relief it normally was. His brother came up to inspect what he had done, giving a single nod and leaving after he had concluded the results adequate.

 

Red sat on his bed, nervously attempting to eat up the time he had left before his planned departure with mundane activities on the internet, but he probably would have felt no worse if he’d sat there and devoted all of his attention to imagining how things could go horribly wrong.

 

To his relief, five minutes before he would need to head out, he heard his brother travel up the stairs and then close himself in his room. If he didn’t have to deal with the judgmental gaze of Papyrus as he left, it would be much easier. Even so, when he shoved his feet into his shoes and stepped out into the cold Snowdin air, he had to swallow a whimper. He had left early to allow himself to drag his feet as much as he possibly could on the way to the portal.

 

Once there, he focused his energy on not vomiting once again as he stepped through. He was ready to be assaulted by the sight of a new face, but thankfully, it was only Blue, and the audible sigh of relief he let loose sent his cheeks flushing crimson from his embarrassment.

 

“You’re here!”

 

“Uh-Uhm… yeah…” Red swallowed, about ready to collapse onto the ground now that the main event of his adrenaline had passed. “Where is she?”

 

“I thought you might want to have a few minutes to prepare yourself before she got here, so I told her 8:10.”

 

Red looked down, picking at a scar on his thumb where his hands were stuffed inside of his jacket pockets. He was not used to having this much thought be put into his comfort. “...Thanks…” he finally mumbled after a while.

 

“You’re welcome.” He saw out of the corner of his eye as Blue gestured to the ground. “I brought the blanket again. Want to sit?”

 

Red nodded, shuffling over to where there was indeed a blanket and settling on it with a huff. Blue joined him a moment later, offering a kind smile. Red only looked away again, drawing into himself. He didn’t need any of this right now.

 

It was getting dark, but the little light that the Underground had through what managed to leak in from the surface and their technology was still sufficient, being reflected off of the snow. Red heard as Blue shifted, then blinked when something was held out in front of him. “Uh?”

 

“It’s cider,” Blue said quietly, wiggling the thermos until Red grabbed it and lowered it to his lap. “Snowdin is cold, especially at night, as I’m sure you know. Figured I should bring something warm.”

 

Red let his eyesockets droop. “Thanks…” He didn’t do anything, but was kicked into action when Blue gave him a nod of approval and said that he didn’t need any.

 

Red unscrewed the lid, shivering when hot, soothing steam wound up and caressed his face. He set the lid down, then breathed in, surprised at how strongly it smelled of apples. “Didja make this yourself?”

 

“Mhm! I try to make most of everything, rather than just buying it. I love to cook, and I feel better about feeding it to my brother.”

 

Red chuckled, blowing on the hot drink. “Taking on the ‘ _protective little brother_ ’ role? Way to fight the system.”

 

Blue giggled. “Yeah. He’s called Stretch, by the way.”

 

Red scrunched his face up in thought. “Wasn’t that part of some sort of meme in a few universes like… years ago?”

 

Blue sighed. “Yes, yes it was. But he is tall, so it fits surprisingly well.”

 

Red grimaced at the thought of how far his own brother towered over him, especially with the heels he often sported. “Oh.” He doubted that ‘Stretch’ was quite to the level of his Papyrus, but he wasn’t going to question it further.

 

Blue seemed to hesitate before speaking. “Since you didn’t have a nickname when we met, I’m assuming your brother doesn’t either?”

 

Red sighed. “Nah.”

 

“Can we give him one?”

 

Red hoped that one wouldn’t be needed, because he didn’t want to talk about him at all, but he knew this would probably pop up eventually. “Whatever.”

 

Blue hummed. “...Rust?”

 

Red narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Why?”

 

Blue shrugged sheepishly. “Because you’re Red?”

 

“Fuck to the no,” Red growled. He did not want his brother’s apparent new nickname to be related to his in any way, shape, or form. “How about Fucktard?”

 

Blue snorted. “Uh, I don’t think Dream and Ink would take that one.”

 

Right. These nicknames were probably going to be made official, but Red couldn’t really do anything about that, considering that Dream and Ink were kinda… everywhere, and pretty hard to stop if they wanted to do something. “Edgelord pisscouch boner nazi the sixteenth.”

 

Blue made a face somewhere between amusement and skepticism. “We could… shorten that to Edge?”

 

Red sighed and nodded his agreement, then took a sip of the cider, closing his eyes at the warm tingle it spread around his body.

 

“Is it good?”

 

He nodded again. Red hadn’t had very much cider in his days but he could tell that this was an example of what it was supposed to be, all balanced between sweetness and tartness and spiciness. He snapped his head up and nearly sent the drink flying, however, when he heard a quiet voice.

 

“U-Um, hello?”

 

“Undyne!” Blue chirped, scooting closer to the other skeleton and patting the empty spot on the blanket.

 

While Red leaned away at the sudden closeness, he did appreciate having a barrier to protect him from this newcomer. The fish monster sat down and pulled her knees up to her chest, then shyly looked at Red from underneath the hair that was falling before her eyes. “H-Hi…”

 

He only grunted, bringing the thermos up to his mouth again and downing the rest of the cider in one fell swoop, not really tasting it but still reveling in the warmth. Blue took the thermos from him after raising one of his browbones, then tucked it back into his bag before speaking.

 

“So!” he gestured to Red, glancing between him and the third monster on the blanket. “Undyne, this is Sans from Underfell, or Red.” He shifted his hand towards the monster that was obviously Undyne. “Red, this is my Undyne.”

 

“Kay,” he mumbled, stuffing his hands back into his pockets.

 

Everything was silent for a while, until Undyne finally spoke up. “So, um, R-Red, tell me about yourself! I’m u-uh… the Royal Scientist h-here and… that’s about it. I’m t-trash.”

 

Yet another grunt. “I uh… like to sleep.”

 

Things went on like this, Undyne being shut down time after time until things got so unbearably uncomfortable that she made some lame excuse about needing to catch up on an anime before leaving. Once she was out of sight and hopefully earshot, Red deflated, slouching down and letting out a long breath.

 

He didn’t mind the silence this time, but Blue broke it soon enough, though his voice was soft. “Can I touch you?”

 

Red looked up, about to deny his request, but found such sadness glittering in the Swap monster’s large cyan eyelights that he mumbled an ‘okay’ instead.

 

Blue slipped his gloves off, then reached out. Red begrudgingly pulled one of his hands from his pocket, tensing when it was enveloped with both of Blue’s and given a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “Red, I’m _so_ sorry.”

 

He looked up at that one, but Blue continued without giving him a chance to speak. “I never should have pressured you into this, I feel absolutely _awful_ , and I’m so _sorry_ -” His voice faltered, so he coughed, blinked a few times, and tried again. “I was not a good friend. I’d take it back if I could. Your comfort is worth more than my Undyne’s curiosity.”

 

Red swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. “It…” He cursed himself for feeling so emotional. “It’s not your fault,” he murmured after clearing his throat. “I’m just such a fucking pussy that I can’t handle jack shit, so… pretty sure that makes me the bad friend, or at least an inconvenient one.” The word ‘friend’ felt foreign on his tongue, especially when he was using it to refer to one of his relationships.

 

Blue gave him a sad look, tracing his metacarpals with one of his thumbs and sending shivers up Red’s arm. “But even if you think that about yourself, it doesn’t mean you have to go out of your comfort zone for other people. It’s not your job to please them, only to take care of yourself.”

 

Red had to force a whimper down, the words combined with another squeeze of his hand a little too much for him. “You… you’re too nice for your own good, you know that?”

 

“I do.”

 

Blue released his hand and pulled his gloves back on, leaving Red to marvel at how the air against his hand felt so much colder than it had now that the touch was gone. It was way darker now, the only reason they were able to see each other being their close proximity.

 

Blue turned his face skyward, then pointed upwards in a seemingly random direction. “That’s where Polaris is, I think.”

 

Of course they couldn’t see it, but the thought of it being there still sent a smile creeping onto Red’s features. Nothing like the darkness of the night sky to lighten the mood.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW this took way too long. I need to be helped out with this laziness thing I have going on. Anyone know any good home remedies?

Blue looked up from his phone when Stretch walked past and headed towards the door. “Where’re you going, Papy?”

 

Stretch halted, his cheeks dusting over with a bit of his marigold magic. “Uh… Swapfell…”

 

Blue grinned, raising a browbone. “Oh?”

 

“Yeah…”

 

He set his phone down, placing his chin in his hand and putting on a sly expression. “Any particular reason you're going _there_ , of all places?”

 

“To see Slim,” the Papyrus replied with a defeated sigh.

 

Blue giggled. “Thought so.”

 

After his brother was gone, Blue picked his phone back up, intending to return to what he had been doing, but was interrupted when an idea struck him. He glanced at the time on his phone, then realized the action hadn’t exactly been required, seeing as it was a Saturday and that was the day Red was the most free on. He was planning on getting some work around the house done today, considering that he had only been sitting down for a break before, but… this was a good opportunity. And so, he called the number he had gotten quite used to seeing by that point, then put the phone to the side of his skull.

 

In the few of their visits since the Undyne incident, Red had been growing more comfortable. He didn’t look like he was about to dust on the spot every time he wandered through the portal, and felt as if he was able to laugh a little louder than a chuckle. Blue still smiled at the memory of the Fell skeleton bursting out into hysterical laughter, which had soon lead to a coughing fit, and Blue rubbing his back - not before asking, of course - while trying to stifle his own laughter.

 

Red picked up on one of the last rings as he usually did, and Blue simply asked him if he wanted to visit, even if his plans might have extended beyond that. Thankfully, the other skeleton agreed, and the date was set to meet in an hour.

 

Blue wasted no time before beginning to prepare, brainstorming another ‘unhealthy’ thing to make and setting to work on that. Once done, he grabbed his bag and after a bit of struggling, was able to cram a pillow inside. He was nearly late by that point, considering what he had made had taken a while, so he shoved the containers in and set off. He only had to stand around for a couple of minutes once there before Red showed, which felt a bit strange, because he always made a point of being early by a rather large margin.

 

He greeted the other monster with a smile and wave. “Hey!”

 

“Hey,” Red threw right back at him.

 

Blue sighed, then offered a small smile. “So, my brother’s in Swapfell.”

 

Red raised a browbone. “Uh, cool?”

 

“So… there’s no way he could find us if we… say… went to my station instead of sitting on the ground here..?”

 

Red went rigid, but Blue continued before he could reply. “Let me promise you that I am not lying when I say that I see, maybe… three people by my station a week. And it’s right by the woods, so you’d only have to take a few steps to be hidden by what you _know_ to be a monstrous tangle of trees.”

 

Red seemed to hesitate, but let his shoulders sag after a moment. “Fine, you idiot.”

 

Blue could tell from his tone of voice that the insult was not meant to wound, so he smiled and bounced on his toes a few times in his excitement, more relieved than he probably should have been. “Great! Let’s go, then.”

 

Red grumbled something under his breath, then pulled the fluffy hood of his jacket up over his head, yanking it down as far as it could go so that Blue could only barely make out the glimmer of his crimson eyelights through the fur covering them. He giggled at the sight, then beckoned for the other skeleton to follow him as he stepped from the small clearing and into the thicker vegetation. Red followed, but not without hunching over and looking down to the point of his face being parallel to the ground. Blue tried to make conversation, but was immediately snapped at to be quiet, so he just focused on walking. It was agonizingly slow, but eventually, they got there.

 

Blue drew in a sharp breath, setting his bag down on the desk and taking out the containers of food before wrestling the pillow out and setting it down on his chair after pulling it out. Red watched him, having looked up just enough to expose his eyelights, and Blue gestured to the chair. “It’s for you.”

 

Red’s eyelights flashed. “O-Oh uh… okay…” He awkwardly shuffled over and lowered himself into the chair, staying still as Blue circled the desk and then climbed atop it from the other side.

 

They were silent for a while, as was seeming to become the norm. “Hey,” Blue eventually murmured, “Are you okay? We can go back if you want.”

 

Red hesitantly reached up to his face, and let his hood fall back down to its normal position with a quiet sigh. “I’m okay. Just being a moron, as usual.”

 

“No you’re not.”

 

Red just rolled his eyes, used to the retorts to his self deprecation at that point. “Mm.”

 

Blue picked up the first of the containers, popping the lid off and holding it out for his friend to see. Red squinted in response. “Is that… pizza?”

 

“Nope!”

 

Blue opened another container and pulled out a corn chip - that he had baked himself, of course. He dipped it into the cheesy substance, then held it out to the other monster. “It’s pizza _dip_!”

 

Red took the chip, looking truly shocked. He placed it in his mouth, chewed once, then swallowed. Blue smiled when an expression pretty hard to find any negative emotions in took over the Fell skeleton’s face. “Holy shit…” Red muttered. “That’s… terrifying.”

 

Blue cocked his head. “Uh… what?”

 

“Terrifyingly good.”

 

Blue laughed, the light, joyous sound filling the void that had been between them so far that day. “Thanks! You’ve really been challenging my creativity lately, you know? I keep having to think of horrendously unhealthy things to make you.”

 

“Well you don’t gotta…” Red mumbled in response, blushing.

 

“But I want to,” Blue warmly assured him.

 

He took his own chip, then scooped some up of his creation, consisting of marinara sauce, an ungodly amount of cheese, and some pepperoni slices on top. Red was quick to follow, managing to shove so much dip onto a chip that Blue wouldn’t have been surprised if it snapped and fell to its doom right back in its cheesy origin. They took this bite in tandem, Red having his down much quicker even though the quantity of what he had consumed was nothing to complain about.

 

But Blue didn’t care, only beamed. “It _is_ good! I’ve never made this before.”

 

Red let out a short bark of laughter. “Why am I not surprised? You excel at everything you do.”

 

Blue held up a finger. “Not true. And to prove that, I brought something else.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a deck of cards. “I have a curse. I win at cards… one in twenty times, even if the game is based completely on chance, and not skill.”

 

Red took the time to shove another bite of food into his face before leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. “Is that so?”

 

Blue nodded. “Care to test it out?”

 

“Why not?”

 

Blue began dealing the cards, smiling when he heard another crunch of a chip. It always felt good when Red liked the food he brought. Once done, he picked his up, and deduced that he still had no idea if they were particularly good or not. Red grabbed his as well, and Blue gave him a nod to go first.

 

“So, I have another question,” Blue ventured as he pondered what his first move should be.

 

“Oh boy,” Red sighed, “I thought you had finally ran out.”

 

Blue flashed a smile and giggled. “Not a chance. So, favorite time of day?”

 

“Midnight, hands down.”

 

The simple game faded into the background as they chatted and snacked, but Blue wouldn’t have been surprised at the outcome either way.

 

“Well shit, you weren’t kidding.”

 

“Nope,” Blue sighed defeatedly, putting his cards down on the table for the other monster to see. Red had won by a landslide, as expected. “Shall we go again?”

 

Red let one side of his mouth curl upwards. “Sure. I could get used to this whole ‘winning’ thing.”

 

Blue was the first to go this time. “Okay,” he started with a sharp breath, “So… I’ve gotta know…”

 

“Mm?” Red hummed, taking his turn.

 

“Do I look gay to you?”

 

Red halted in his tracks. “Uh… what?”

 

“Do I look gay to you,” Blue repeated with a sigh. “My Undyne tells me that I look like the gayest being to ever exist, and… I don’t get it?” Another heavy breath. “All that human research is getting to her.”

 

Indeed, from what had been discovered, humans apparently treated sexuality like a choice and discriminated based upon it. To monsters, it was a simple part of life, and discriminating for it would be like shunning somebody for liking the color yellow. The concept of it just baffled Blue. Besides, was looking like your orientation even possib-

 

“Yeah, you look gay.”

 

Blue nearly choked on the air he had been attempting to obtain. “What??”

 

“It’s the bandana,” Red replied casually.

 

Blue huffed. “But that makes no sense!”

 

“No, it doesn’t,” Red agreed, “But that’s what the humans would say, I think.”

 

Blue frowned, both at the thought and his second loss. “Well, at least my appearance isn’t deceiving,” he grumbled as he dealt out more cards.

 

“Huh?”

 

Blue laughed lightly. “I am gay. _Very_ gay. I think I should be in a book of records or something.”

 

“Heh.” Red took his turn. “I guess it’s just where you feel at homo.”

 

Blue groaned, slumping over. “Puns are okay, even bad ones from time to time, but that? Was _awful_.”

 

“I know,” Red admitted with a slight smile. “It’s also pretty awful for _you_ that I just won again on my fifth turn.”

 

Blue glanced down at their game in disbelief. “What.” His voice was monotone.

 

Red snickered, taking the liberty of dealing this time. “Hey,” Blue prodded, “If you don’t mind me asking, what about you?”

 

“Orientation?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

While it wasn’t a taboo subject, you didn’t just walk up to someone you’ve never met before and ask them about their sexuality, as it could come off wrong. If your only intent was to hook up with someone, and you want to find out if they're eligible to be attracted to you, the decent thing to do is to stick to the internet in a place where that is everyone’s shared goal.

 

“Nah, It's fine,” Red replied. “I give _zero_ shits, like, at all. The amount of shits I give is actually dropping into the negatives, most likely. So, in intellectual terms, that makes me pan.”

 

Blue breathed out in amusement. “Well, that’s surely a creative way to put it.”

 

“Yeah. Also, I just won again.”

 

“Goddammit.”

 

Red laughed at the bitter, defeated expression on Blue’s face. “Aw, lighten up there, sweetheart. It’s not the end of the world.”

 

Blue perked up. “Sweetheart?”

 

Red froze. “Uhhh… I uh… um… a-ah…”

 

Blue watched as his alternate’s face became as red as his namesake. “I didn’t mind,” he eventually said, cutting the Fell monster off in his attempts to form proper words. “I was just a little curious. It kinda came out of nowhere.”

 

Red coughed once. “Um, yeah. Sorry. Slip of the tongue. Won’t happen again.”

 

“I said I didn’t m-”

 

“It won’t happen again.”

 

Blue frowned slightly, but with the way Red was staring intensely at his cards as if they were the most interesting thing to ever exist, he knew that this was one of those topics he had to drop.

 

The conversation fixed itself after a minute or so, much to Blue’s relief. However, after Red had won two more games, his relief was waning. He wasn’t a bad sport, but he knew that this was insane. Was he _literally_ cursed or something? It was a joke he always told, but he didn’t exactly believe it. Magic of such types were beyond illegal, so in the event that he somehow ended up cursed, why would it only affect how often he won at cards, of all things?

 

“Hey, good job!”

 

Blue pulled himself from his thoughts. “Huh?”

 

“You just won!”

 

He looked down in shock, and sure enough, his hands were empty of all his cards. He nearly fell backwards off of his station in his excitement. “Stars, I did!”

 

He was smiling ridiculously wide, and he could feel his eyelights twinkling. It felt great to win, it really did, but the thing that really made it was that Red was wearing the same expression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Yeah... let me just... leave their compatibility right there... I'm sure nobody will notice...]


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, big surprise. This took forever. I promise this will end eventually-

“My brother rarely leaves the house if it’s not to work. And when he does, he goes to Muffet’s, or _maybe_ takes the ferry to the Lab or some place in the Capital, but he _never_ goes anywhere near our stations if he isn’t working.”

 

Red sighed, anxiously fiddling with the zipper of his jacket. “Cool, that’s fascinating. But what if he does this time?”

 

Blue huffed loudly into the phone. “He won’t. And actually, he’s probably more likely to find us at the portal than at my station! He goes to Swapfell quite a bit.”

 

“...Oh.” He hadn’t thought of that.

 

Blue spoke again, voice much gentler this time around. “It’ll be okay, Red, really.”

 

He grit his teeth. Would it? Blue - who was one giant shining ball of success - said it was, so… probably. Red had a thing with constantly being wrong, even if he was beyond confident that he wasn’t. Ask him how to spell the word 'cat' and he'd find a way to fuck it up. “Fine,” he muttered, letting his free hand fall down onto his bed.

 

“Great!” Blue chirped. “So, same time we had planned?”

 

“Yeah,” Red sighed.

 

They hadn’t gone to Blue’s station again in the few of their visits since they did the first time, but he did have to admit it was astronomically more comfortable.

 

He jumped and almost yelped when he heard his brother shrieking at him to come down for dinner. He’d finished with the job he’d been assigned, so he’d taken the extra time to sit and do something he wanted for once, but was interrupted with a call from Blue. He didn’t mind that much, as it was nice to talk to him, even if he was still paranoid about communicating too frequently. He’d been remembering to clear his call logs and the few texts they had sent, though, so it was just a precaution. He didn’t think his brother had the skills to hack into his phone to see any deleted material.

 

When his history of communication with Blue had been wiped clean again, he scurried down the stairs and fell into his seat across from Edge a little less than gracefully. They ate with minimal conversation as usual, but one thing his brother ended up saying almost made him drop his spoon directly into the stew that had been presented to him.

 

“Uh… what..?”

 

“I said, Sans,” Edge sighed, exasperation evident in his voice, “Where have you been going recently? I know it’s not Grillby’s, because you’d reek like that disgusting place afterwards if that were the case.”

 

It was true that Red had been visiting the establishment for drinks less and less as his visits with Blue became more commonplace. “Well?” Edge snapped, springing Red forth into action.

 

“I ah- um- it’s uh- er- Al… phys..?” That seemed to be his go-to excuse nowadays.

 

Edge rolled his eyes. “Sans, all the pathetic stuttering is enough of an indicator for me to know it’s something more than that; it’s obviously embarrassing to you in some way. But that doesn’t excuse lying to me,” he finished, the threat implied well enough that he didn't have to state it blatantly.

 

Red scrambled, Soul pounding in his sternum. “It’s…” What was theoretically embarrassing, but wouldn’t get him in trouble?

 

“Are you seeing someone?”

 

Now that stopped him. “You mean…”

 

“Have you found yourself a love interest?”

 

That was it. Yes, the perfect excuse, except for… the ‘love’ part. “Yes- well, no-!” he blurted, the crimson flush covering his face hopefully passing as embarrassment rather than sheer panic. “Not a love interest! Just… a friend interest?” Smooth.

 

Edge’s sanguine eyelights glinted in disapproval, but even he knew he couldn’t control who his brother befriended, unless it was someone like Blue. “Who?”

 

He almost regurgitated some random name like ‘Fred’, but stopped himself at the last moment. It would need to explain his traveling to another universe, just in case he got caught in the act of going to the portal. “It’s… you.”

 

“W-?!”

 

Red choked on his breath. “I-I mean-!! You from another universe!”

 

A very disgruntled looking Edge gathered himself and probed further. “Which one?”

 

Fuck. It couldn’t break the law, and it couldn’t be a Fell one, because that would set Edge off, so that left him with exactly two choices. One seemed more reasonable than the other. “Uh… Undertale. Yep. I’m… friends with Rus now. Yeah.”

 

Edge was silent for a while, expression emotionless. “Okay,” he eventually said with a breath. “I’ll go speak to him and his brother this weekend to lay some ground rules.”

 

“Wait-”

 

“No,” Edge snarled, anger flaring to life in his eyelights. “I’m going, and you have no authority to stop me from doing so. I’m your boss.”

 

Red ate the rest of his dinner, lest he be slapped upside the face, but he didn’t really taste it, much less enjoy it. Yet again, he was absolutely fucked. Once done, he fled up to his room and dialed Blue with shaking hands, who picked up almost immediately, as he always did. “Yes?”

 

“C-Can I come now?” Red stammered, breath hitching with every inhalation. They hadn’t planned to meet for another hour, but Red wanted to get as far away from his brother as he could, as fast as he could.

 

“Huh? I-I mean yeah, of course, but what’s wrong?” Blue replied, concern lacing his voice.

 

“I’ll tell you when I get there,” Red said, trying to ignore the painful lump in him throat. “And don’t bother coming to get me at the portal. I can come to your station myself.”

 

“Alri-”

 

Red hung up, and while he was known for doing that quite a lot, it wasn’t usually when the other party was literally in the middle of speech, but he had no time to waste, despite the twinge of guilt the action gave him. He pulled his shoes on, almost breaking a claw in the process, then stumbled out the door, mumbling a stream of curses under his breath as he massaged his fingertip. As if being born in Fell universe wasn’t already bad enough, he was stuck with spikes everywhere.

 

He shuffled to the portal, and went through it, not allowing himself to stop and feel anxious about the action. He’d gotten much more used to it, but it still wasn’t his favorite. However, once he was slinking through Underswap’s Snowdin Forest towards Blue’s station, he was afraid he might just fall into a heap on the ground.

 

But somehow, he made it, running the last stretch when he saw Blue anxiously pacing in front of his post. “Red!” the Swap monster exclaimed when he screeched to a halt in front of him, immediately leaning on the desk and panting, trying to fight back tears.

 

“Yeah,” he managed to choke out.

 

He saw Blue begin to reach for him, but stop himself half of the way there. “Can I touch you?”

 

“No.”

 

Blue swallowed, then continued. “Okay, how about you sit?”

 

Red nodded, practically limping around Blue’s desk and falling into the chair there, again equipped with a pillow. Another thermos was given to him, and he twisted the cap off with trembling hands, then downed whatever was inside. It was cold, and slightly sweet, but he wasn’t in the mood to decipher what it was. He sat with his head in his hands, trying to regulate his breathing, and once he had done a good enough job, Blue broke the silence.

 

“Can you tell me what’s going on?”

 

He kind of had to. Red took a deep breath, looked up, and explained thins as easily as he could. “So somehow I backed myself into a corner and lied to my brother that I’ve been hanging out with Rus instead of you, so that he wouldn’t find out.” Saying it out loud only made it seem more stupid. He had a serious talent for fucking himself over. Like, seriously, it was comical at this point, with how ridiculously avoidable the situation was. He could have fucking said that he’d found a better place to go to instead of Grillby’s, and made it sound embarrassing because it was themed after glittery kittens or something. That had to exist in one of the softer universes, right?

 

Blue didn’t seem to agree, only furrowing his browbones in concern rather than burst out laughing at his idiocy. “Okay, how can I help?”

 

“You can’t,” Red snapped, voice thick. “My Papyrus is going to talk to him soon and find out that I was lying, and I’ll be fucking _dead_ -”

 

“Red, Red,” Blue soothed, “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

 

“No it isn-”

 

“Rus is one of my best friends,” Blue hurriedly said, “So I can call him and ask him to play along when he gets questioned by Edge.”

 

Panic seized Red’s Soul all over again. “Are you fucking insane?” he quietly growled, though there was no anger behind the tone. “And reveal our fantastic illegal operations? On _purpose_?”

 

“He already knows, Red,” Blue murmured, “He’s promised not to tell anyone, and he approves. He’s probably told his brother by now too, and I’m sure Comic is equally okay with it and sworn to secrecy.”

 

Red blinked. “Really??”

 

Blue nodded. “People don’t hate you as much as you seem to think.”

 

Red took a deep, shuddering breath. Alright. He could work with this. “Anyone else I should know about you telling?” he said under his breath after a moment.

 

Blue shook his head. “Only Rus, consequently Comic, and my Undyne by accident.”

 

Red grunted. “Right. About that, has she said anything about me since we met?”

 

Blue nodded. “I’ve only seen her once since then, and we talked about it a bit. She understands why things went the way they did and still promises not to tell anyone.”

 

Red exhaled heavily, rubbing at one of his eyesockets. “Okay. So, you can call Rus, I guess. It’s the only way I’ll end up un-dusted.”

 

And so Blue did, walking a little ways into the forest to give himself privacy, and when he returned, gave Red a thumbs up. “Okay! Rus has agreed to say he’s friends with you, and Comic’s in on it too.”

 

Red honestly didn’t know how he felt about that. Two people he had barely talked to were getting involved in his own bullshit? They had his back, even though they’d have hell to pay if things went awry? He didn’t understand. Nobody from his universe would ever dream of putting themselves on the line for a stranger like that.

 

“You alright?”

 

He blinked away the blurriness his vision had acquired from his staring and flicked hid eyelights to meet Blue’s. “I guess. Just stressed as all hell, now.”

 

Blue tilted his head, humming. “What helps you relieve stress?”

 

He could have said ‘ _thinking about the most violent way to kill the source of my discomfort,_ ’ or ‘ _jerking off_ ,’ but he didn’t think that would progress the conversation to any desirable places. “Uh… sleeping..?”

 

“Well,” Blue sighed, “I would rent you a room at Snowed Inn to take a nap, but I don’t really have the spare money and I don’t think you’d agree to that. Anything else?”

 

“Eating?”

 

Blue cringed. “Sorry. I was going to make something, but I had to rush at the sudden change in time.”

 

Right. “Um… using very bad language,” he concluded.

 

Blue breathed out in amusement. “From what I’ve gathered, you like doing that all the time, to relieve stress or not.”

 

Red laughed, then elaborated when Blue gave him a confused look. “Really? You think what I’ve said is anywhere _near_ my skill level of making protective parents want to dust themselves?”

 

Blue pressed his mouth into a thin line. “I, uh, never stopped to think about it?”

 

Red curled his mouth upwards into a malicious grin. “Oh boy, get ready to have your horizons expanded.”

 

Blue raised a browbone. “Alright. Educate me.”

 

Red took a deep breath. “Impale yourself on Satan’s cock, cuntlipped bastard.”

 

Blue’s face was expressionless. “Well then.”

 

“Oh, that was just my warm up.”

 

He resorted to a favorite the residents of Underfell had for his next attack, but added some extras at the end to really drive it home. “Go shove the king's trident up your ass, you cumdrunk heap of bloody, dismembered dicks.”

 

Blue’s facade was breaking. “We uh… we have a queen here…”

 

“Oh shit, right,” Red muttered. “Okay, so it’s _go shove the queen’s_ -”

 

“No thanks,” Blue cut him off. “I’d rather not.”

 

Red chuckled gruffly. “Heh, sorry. Guess demeaning your ruler in the most horrendous way I can imagine isn’t really the nicest thing to do.” He cocked a browbone. “Can I do one more?”

 

“Fine,” Blue sighed, a small smile creeping onto his features.

 

Red really went for it this time, and used the best insult known to monsterkind. “Suck my dick.”

 

Blue stared at him blankly, and Red soon realized his mistake, then scrambling to correct it. “I-I didn’t mean literally! Fuck- sorry- no-” This was it. Blue would never speak to him again. He’d crossed a line. There was no going ba-

 

Blue burst out laughing, so hard that he had to lean on the desk for support. Red was afraid he’d literally gone insane, but once he caught a glimpse of the huge smile overtaking the other monster's face, relief crashed through him, and his own laughter fizzled within him before bubbling over. It was at first just a chuckle, but it kept escalating until he was at Blue’s level and they were both choking on the barrage of obnoxious noises parading from their mouths. Once they had managed to calm down, Blue looked at him, still smiling with an adorable little glint in his eyelights. “Good one.”

 

Red had to cough several times before he could form words. “Uh… thanks?”

 

“You’re welcome,” Blue giggled.

 

“Hey, I’ve got an idea.” Red hauled himself to his feet, then walked around the desk until he was facing Blue, who stood up straight as he approached.

 

“Yeah?”

 

Red held his hands out, palms to the ground. “It’s a game. Put your hands beneath mine, palms facing upwards.”

 

“Okay,” Blue said, pulling his gloves off and tossing them over onto his post before following the instructions.

 

“Mkay,” Red started, “So the game is that you have to try and slap the top of my hands before I can dodge.”

 

Blue flashed him a smile. “Okay.” He stopped and looked up at him again, eyelights expanded and filled with so much kindness. “Can I touch you?”

 

Red stopped. The guy had bothered to ask even though he’d already given the damn permission? That was fucking stupid, but… sweet. Really sweet. His magic betrayed him, and he could feel as his cheekbones heated up with a bright crimson blush. “Uh… yeah… you can…”

 

Blue looked down, and concentrated. Red gathered his bearings, and was ready by the time he detected motion, pulling his hands back and causing Blue to slap nothing but empty air. The Swap monster laughed, the sound light and tinkling. Red was usually annoyed by those kinds of noises, but it made him happy this time. He’d made someone as fucking perfect as Blue feel good enough to laugh.

 

Blue tried again, and failed, but Red had expected this. He always won at this game, though that didn't say that much, considering the fact that he’d only played it with a few people. A few tries and a few fails later, and Blue was looking a bit irritated, though not in a bitter or resentful way.

 

“Heh, what can I say,” Red said with a smirk, “Sanses are really good at dodging.”

 

Blue sighed, smiling. “Well, Swap Sanses are really good at using clever battle tactics.”

 

“Wh-”

 

While he was distracted, Blue’s hands came down on top of his, hard. “Ow, what the hell?!” He pulled his hands back this time because it hurt _way_ more than he was expecting, and the triumphant expression on the other skeleton’s face crumbled away.

 

“Stars! I’m sorry, I should have been more gentle!” He reached for Red’s hands, and took them in his, soothingly rubbing at his knuckles and metacarpals until the sting had faded. He looked up after a while, face ridden with guilt. “Sorry. I didn’t ask if I could touch you.”

 

And there he went again. “Blue… I… already said you could…”

 

“But not _this_ time. Only for the game.”

 

His blush back in full, Red slowly started to pull his hands away, but Blue held on. Red looked at him, confused, and their eyes met. They shared nothing but thick silence for a few moments, Blue’s hands impossibly warm and soft against his scarred ones, but a gentle, genuine voice permeated the quiet soon enough. “Things are going to be okay, remember? I promise.”

 

Maybe, just maybe, they would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've seen Fell Asgore depicted with a trident, a scythe, and a cleaver, so I just went with the easiest option?


	29. Chapter 29

Blue’s eyelights flicked to the side at the sound of his phone. Upon picking it up, he saw a call from Red, and answered with a slight smile. Red had called him a grand total of three times over the couple of months they had been friends, including this one, so it was special. “Hey! What’s going on?”

 

He heard some shuffling from the other end, then a gruff voice he had grown to know quite well. “Uh… nothin.”

 

Blue shifted in his chair, trying to relieve a bit of the stiffness that had built up in his hip joints and sacrum. Overtime was never fun, especially when you have to sit outside in the cold with nothing but an uncomfortable chair and a pile of paperwork for company. “Oh? Well, how’ve you been?”

 

Red waited a while before speaking. “Uh… fine, I guess… er… so uh… do you think I could… come… over..?”

 

Blue’s Soul pulsed with happiness and dread all at once. This was the first time Red had ever asked first, and yet this was also the first time since they’d met that he’d had to work into the night hours? “I…”

 

“Nah, that’s alright, j-just forget it-”

 

“Wait!” When the other monster silently stayed on the phone, he continued. “It’s not that I don’t want to,” Blue murmured, “Trust me, I really do, but I’m… actually still at work.”

 

“On a Friday? Damn, that’s harsh,” Red sighed. “But yeah, whatever, I uh, don’t mind.”

 

But Blue could tell that he did. The Fell monster’s voice was saturated with sorrow and hurt, and he didn’t need to see him to detect it. Even so, he’d grown attuned enough to Red’s emotions over the time they’d known each other to have noticed even if the signs had been more subtle. But, hearing the dejection so plainly in his friend’s voice was too much. He couldn’t turn him away, even if that was the smart thing to do.

 

“You can still come,” Blue offered meekly.

 

“I can?” Red sounded skeptical under the remaining gloom in his voice.

 

“Yes,” Blue said, exhaling. “You can, and I’d love it if you did, but I’d have to work, too. I’m really sorry.” It was his turn to sound ridiculously mournful.

 

“You’re… sure you’d want me there to bother you?” Red sounded surprised this time, but Blue’s eyelights sparkled as he picked up a hopeful tone to his words.

 

“I’m sure!” he exclaimed, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. “And you wouldn’t bother me. You’d only make the work less painful.”

 

Red didn’t answer for a while, and Blue feared that he had said something wrong, but a reply eventually came and put his anxieties at ease. “O-Okay… if you really want, I’ll come…”

 

“I do,” Blue insisted. 

 

“...Alright.”

 

Blue hadn’t been lying. When Red showed up at his station half an hour later, the stack of papers in front of him suddenly looked a whole lot less daunting. Blue smiled widely at his alternate, then stood to offer him the chair, but was stopped. 

 

“Woah, what the hell? Aren’t you the one who needs to work?” 

 

Blue blinked. “Well, yes, but I don’t really need a chair-”

 

He was cut off again by a loud snort. “Dumbass. Come on, if you can sit on the desk, so can I. It may be a literal pain in the ass, but eh, what can ya do?”

 

The corners of Blue’s mouth crept upwards into another smile, the underlying sweetness of the seemingly dismissive claim hitting him like a brick to the face. Red must have seen that his tactic of hiding his kindness wasn’t working very well, because suddenly he was huffing and clambering atop his post with crimson cheekbones. 

 

Blue slowly sat back down in his own chair as Red situated himself, ending up in a cross-legged position as far away from the area Blue was working as was he was able without being in danger of falling from the desk. Blue smiled up at him, and Red made an expression probably intending to be stern in return. “Well? Don’t let me hold you up.”

 

“Fine, fine,” Blue sighed, picking up his pencil directing his gaze back down at the report he had been in the process of writing when Red showed up. 

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he couldn’t help but notice something given the new perspective he was seeing the other monster from. Red’s shorts normally came down just past his knees, but now they were pulled upwards with the way he was sitting, exposing the very bottoms of his femurs. The bones were laced with an array of scars, just as his arms had been, though Blue hadn’t seen them since the need to help him with his injuries was no longer there. Two clawed hands came down and tugged on the fabric as Blue was peering at him, obscuring the scars from view. Blue didn’t think he’d been caught in his shameful little glances, because he had been subtle, but it was still enough to send guilt swelling in his Soul. He had a few ideas of how the scars had gotten there, and he really wanted to offer his support, but he knew they weren’t at that point yet. Red could barely say a sentence about his brother without harshly changing the subject, even if the topic was casual, so Blue wasn’t going to push something that could possibly lead in that direction.

 

He managed to write a grand total of three more words before the silence grew too thick and he glanced up at his Fell counterpart. “Hey, we can still talk, you know? It doesn’t really count as spending time together if we don’t interact.”

 

“Er, yeah, right.”

 

Blue smiled slightly. “Mind taking the lead this time? This report needs attention too, I’m afraid.”

 

Red’s eyelights flashed in surprise. “Uh, oh, okay.” He hummed. “So, what are you doing for your birthday? In a month, right?”

 

Blue’s Soul stuttered at the knowledge that Red remembered, because his birthday was indeed in a month. Well, in 30 days, more accurately, what with how jacked up the February calendar was. “It is!” He began absentmindedly working on his report again, though he wasn’t worried, because writing these things was pretty much burned into his memory at this point, so it didn’t require much focus. “Well, I’m having a few people over, and then going to Outertale for a few days. Did you hear about that new water park they have? Where the water literally looks like a huge nebula?”

 

“Yeah… I have…”

 

Blue suddenly regretted the words, knowing that Red wouldn’t be able to experience it with him. He doubted that Fell Asgore would ask for access to another universe for a while - not until he cooled down, anyway - and that could be a decade from now, which was nothing for boss monsters. He looked up to find a distant sheen over Red’s eyelights. “Hey,” he murmured, “We can do something too. Maybe go hang out in Undertale or something? We could have more fun there, and you know Comic and Rus support our relationship and are there for you.”

 

Red looked down. “Uh… maybe…”

 

Blue knew that meant no, but he swallowed down the worst of his sadness in favor of enjoying the time he had with the other monster now. “Anyway,” he coughed out, “I don’t like to make a big deal out of birthdays.” He glanced up, eyelights shining. “Well, that’s a lie. I don’t like to make a big deal out of  _ my _ birthdays.” He’d orchestrated a few parties and special outings for his friends’ birthdays over the years, and it was one of his favorite things to do. Making someone feel special was far better than feeling special yourself, as far as he was concerned.

 

Red grunted in response. “Well, I’m with you there. I think my last birthday consisted of a very long nap. All day.”

 

Blue laughed. “Well, I think you’d get along with my brother, then. He does that frequently.”

 

Red snorted. “Lucky. And hey, by the way, I have a really random question.”

 

Blue smiled down at his paper as he continued to write. Red had a question for him this time? “Ask away!”

 

“What’s your opinion on, like… social media and stuff?”

 

Blue shrugged. “It’s alright.” The Undernet had two servers available for each universe, one limited to the residents and one that was open to everyone, Fell universes included. Sadly, there was a ‘block all’ option for non-Fell monsters to close themselves off to everyone from a Fell universe. He had his account, sure, but didn’t post that often and wasn’t quite as… adamant as some monsters were. Most notably, all of the Alphyses and Swap Undynes, posting several times an hour at a minimum. He just used the Undernet for entertainment when needed, and to keep up with the people he didn’t get to see as often as he’d like.

 

Something struck him that he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of before. “Wait, do you have an account?” Most everyone did, considering it was the only general social platform the internet had to offer them. 

 

Red chuckled. “Yeah, but I have exactly zero posts and friends, plus my username doesn’t indicate that it’s me or anyone like me at all. I just lurk.”

 

Blue at long last moved on to the conclusion of his report with a smile. “Oh? I could be your friend!”

 

Red raised a browbone. “I mean… sure… I guess… but the reason I asked you in the first place was to see if you were worth following.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“If you post pictures of your fucking food, I’ll break my computer with a bat.”

 

Blue’s mouth fell open. “But… pictures of my food… is primarily what I post…”

 

Red’s expression was blank for a second, but it eventually shifted to one of contemplation. “But, this is stuff that you’ve made, right?”

 

Blue nodded. “Yeah. I like to share recipes.”

 

Red sighed in obvious relief. “Then that’s actually pretty cool. I just can’t handle it when people post pictures of their bubble tea or whatever-the-fuck with a million emojis.”

 

Blue pressed his mouth into a thin line. “I… have to agree with you there. It gets tiring.” He dramatically signed his name at the bottom of his paper. “Just like these reports! But-!” he shifted to look directly at Red, “I’m done now!”

 

The Fell skeleton offered a slight smile. “Nice. So that’s all?”

 

Blue hummed in affirmation, then stood from his chair. “Your turn.”

 

Red slowly lowered himself to the ground, then grimaced and rubbed at his sacrum before shuffling over to the chair and collapsing into it. “Thanks.”

 

Blue took Red’s place sitting atop the desk, regretting the discomfort the other had suffered from the action. “It’s no problem.” He dug his phone out of his pocket, then brought up the Undernet. “So, what’s your username?”

 

Red swallowed loudly. “Uh…” He averted his gaze. “Assassin…”

 

Blue thought it was a bit random, but didn’t bother to question it, and began to type it into the search bar, but Red stopped him.

 

“Only, the thing is… it has some underscores in it.”

 

Blue looked up. “Oh? Where?”

 

Red broke, sighing and giving him a sheepish grin. “Well… let’s just say that it ends up saying  _ ass ass in _ .”

 

Blue let out a heavy breath, but he couldn’t help his smile. He had expected nothing less. “Alright.” He searched for the account, and found it, as dead as could be. He would change that, just a bit, with a single tap. “Friend request sent!”

 

Red retrieved his own phone, then looked at him skeptically. “Blueberry?”

 

He cringed. “Everything else was taken!”

 

Red smirked. “I will now, from this day until I am a pile of dust, only call you Blueberry.”

 

Blue nearly fell to his knees and begged with his hands clasped together. “Please, no- anything but that-!”

 

“You sure?”

 

“Yes!!” He regretted that username like no other, but had yet to think of a better alternative, and unfortunately, he was pretty much tied down to it now, what with everyone online knowing him by it.

 

Red shrugged. “Aight, if you insist.”

 

Blue sighed in relief, and thankfully, did not get called any undesired nicknames when their conversation continued. "Oh but hey," he said after a while, "Do you think it's safe for us to talk online?"

 

Red shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it is. But I really prefer calls, so I can tell better if someone sounds like they want my head."

 

Blue nodded. "Alright, but we can still message if we really need to."

 

The light had faded, and the true cold of night was setting in, but he was completely content to keep talking to the other skeleton. Red wasn’t like his other friends - and not just in the obvious ways, either. He had to put more work into their relationship, and that made it… special. They weren’t especially close, but he couldn’t deny the connection he hadn’t quite felt before in any of his other friendships.

 

But eventually, the cold beat this out. “Hey,” he asked during a break in their conversation, “How would you feel about a warm drink?” Red had his huge fluffy jacket, but Snowdin was Snowdin nonetheless.

 

Red nodded. “Sounds nice.”

 

Blue hesitated. “Well, I don’t exactly have any with me.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“If it’d be okay,” he started slowly, “I could run to Muffet’s and grab us something. That would be the fastest.”

 

Red froze. “So… I’d have to sit here alone?”

 

Blue gave a small, single nod. “I could be back in fifteen minutes if I hurry.”

 

Red wrung his hands together, but let out a breath and nodded after a moment. “Alright.”

 

Blue’s smile returned. “Great! Can I take your order then, sir?” He slid from the desk and jokingly gave the other monster a little bow.

 

Red chuckled. “Uh… does she have alcohol?”

 

Blue squinted. “Well… I think there’s a rum cake, but no, there are no alcoholic beverages.”

 

Red snapped his fingers. “Damn, I’m crushed.” He sighed. “Coffee?”

 

Now that was at the cafe for sure. “Yep! How would you like it?”

 

“Black.”

 

Blue cringed internally at the thought of the bitter drink, but only grinned. “Got it. I’ll be back soon, alright?”

 

“Alright.”

 

Blue hurried, a lot. He was in pretty good shape from all of his training, and was energetic in nature in the first place, but by the time he had retrieved Red’s coffee and a mocha for himself, he was out of breath. His trek back was a slower one, but he still made good time, all things considered. When he approached his station, his Soul lurched. Red was nowhere to be seen. He broke into a run again, slamming the cups down onto the desk and frantically glancing around.

 

“Red!! Stars, Red!” he shouted into the darkness of the night, adrenaline pulsing through his bones. What if Edge had somehow followed him here and dragged him home, planning to shatter him into a million pieces? What if he saw someone approaching and ran away, and was now lost in the woods at night? What if-

 

He heard a rustle from within the trees, and a hooded figure emerged next. Blue’s entire body seemed to deflate when Red came to stand before him, face twisted up in shame. “I’m… sorry…”

 

Blue wanted to hit him and hug him all at once, but he could do none of those things, the first because that would be downright horrible, and the second because he’d need to ask permission, which would most likely be denied. He opted instead for words. “Red! Stars, you scared me!” He swallowed, taking in a breath of air to calm himself. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

 

The Fell skeleton hesitantly lowered his hood off of his head. “T… Thanks… I’m sorry…”

 

Blue let out a breathy laugh, the afterglow of the sudden spike of panic making him giddy. “You don’t have to apologize, Red.”

 

Said skeleton’s trademark blush began to fade. “Yeah, maybe not to you… but I do expect a little less cowardice from myself, you know? I decided to hide in the woods like a babybones for no fucking reason.”

 

Blue watched as his counterpart fell into the chair and slumped over on the desk. “You’re not a coward.” He could’ve explained why, but he didn’t think Red would have appreciated what the reasons entailed. He didn’t tend to like talking about his hardships, so Blue couldn’t push how brave he was to have survived them.

 

He climbed on the desk again, then handed Red his drink and took his in his hands. It was still plenty warm, evident enough by the steam wafting up into his face through the small opening he was meant to sip from even though he couldn’t feel it through the thick, sturdy material of his gloves. He took a sip, shivering as the warmth absorbed into his body. Red followed suit, then tilted his head skyward and breathed out, his breath billowing in the cold air as if it was dancing, rejoicing in the freedom it had gained.

 

“So, it’s Friday,” Blue quietly said. 

 

Red nodded. “Yeah…”

 

He sipped at his drink again. “And that means Edge will go visit Rus soon.”

 

Blue saw Red squeeze his cup a bit harder than necessary for a moment. “Mhm. But he works on Saturdays, so he’ll probably go on Sunday.”

 

“I’ll warn the Tale boys, then,” Blue sighed. 

 

Silence settled over them like falling snow, but more words from Blue melted it effectively enough. “Remember, things are going to be okay.”

 

Red looked up at him, eyelights glimmering. “I really hope you’re right.”

 

So did he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why hello there! 
> 
> So, I hate to say it, both because I love this story to death and a few people actually follow it for some reason, but I have to take a small break from it.
> 
> Why, you may ask? Well, I have a ficlet [or two] to write. I've been putting them off for a while, but I really want to get them done. I'm not sure how long it will take me, but probably one or two weeks if I had to guess.
> 
> I want to be able to focus on this when I write it, especially since the next few chapters might host some... _important_ events that I don't want to mess up.
> 
> So, once all that's over, I hope I can commit to more regular updates. I'll aim for three chapters a week at a minimum, but do more if I can.
> 
> Thank you for reading my ramblings, and I hope you have a nice rest of your day and/or night.


End file.
